Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Monday, February 01, 2010




My Son John Again





Turner Classic Movies finally ran My Son John this week. I’ve been hung up on Leo McCarey’s fabled fiasco since driving down to Raleigh for a rare 35mm showing in October 2007, an event covered previously here. Seeing it again on TCM inspired me to further excavations. I wrote before of ABC having run it around 1970, and no one else doing so since, at least on American television. Turns out that network’s broadcast actually took place April 29, 1973, and again on September 2 of the same year. ABC’s Sunday Night Movie played My Son John both times in a two and a half-hour time period between 9:00 and 11:30 PM. The New York Times listing described MSJ as an artful grovel to the late Senator McCarthy, a pretty good indicator of how political winds were blowing by 1973. Most of us too young to have seen it in 1952 made acquaintance here, as Paramount never reissued My Son John theatrically nor in US syndication. Specialty bookings maintained legend gathering around what was said to be the most rabid of anti-Communist tracts. New Yorkers glimpsed MSJ as part of a Leo McCarey Festival held at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (!) on August 24, 1977, while The Collective for Living Cinema, a Lower Manhattan alternative and avant-garde site, played it during November 1980. As My Son John never surfaced on video, some imagined the film had been suppressed, even as there was non-theatrical availability in 16mm from Films, Inc., at least until that rental house closed its doors. Online forums propagated rumors of TCM "banning" My Son John for their not having played the feature, ignoring less provocative likelihood that programmers couldn’t be bothered with such an obscurity.






















Turns out Leo McCarey was longer gestating My Son John than I’d realized. He began with anything but a completed script (I have one point, the director said, Does it matter how I arrive at it?). The story was McCarey’s, but he brought on John Lee Mahin and Myles Connolly to flesh things out. He spent autumn of 1950 in pursuit of Helen Hayes to star. Getting her would be a coup, as the self-described First Lady Of The American Theatre had been off movie screens since the mid-thirties save for a cameo in Stage Door Canteen. Hayes’ participation was a major selling point for My Son John, as other casting followed close behind her agreement to star. In December of 1950, McCarey described his project as highly emotional, but with much humor, this being lure that brought Hayes aboard. His films were best loved for gentle humor and heart appeal, reliable handmaidens to a sock boxoffice as proven by McCarey with Going My Way and Bells Of St.Mary’s. My Son John’s story would remain top secret even as the forty person crew arrived in Washington during March 1951 for location work, including principals by then in place. Several weeks were spent there, but little of what they filmed made way to the final print. McCarey admitted that his script is in far from final shooting shape, adding that I knew enough of what I wanted in Washington to do some exteriors and other background shots here. At that point, the director hoped to finish My Son John by early June for late 1951 release, though wandering around town in search of interesting backgrounds wasn’t getting the job done any faster. One entire day was spent filming Helen Hayes in a Catholic church McCarey had come across and liked, but none of this footage would be used. We’ve only shot one scene that was in the original script, observed his star actress. Being producer, director, and busy re-writer gave McCarey authority to make whatever changes suited him, even as slow pace of production brought him closer to rendezvous with Robert Walker’s unexpected passing on 8-28-51.








Walker had been a loan-out from MGM, still home lot for the actor. His participation in My Son John is what gives the film its primary interest for me. Bob brings all the fun of Bruno Anthony to his performance as prodigal son John, a less privileged first cousin reduced to office droning that Bruno would have deplored in Strangers On A Train, with low level treason barely a step above catching the 8:15 in the morning to sell paint or something. And what of detective Van Heflin worming his way into family confidence as means of trapping one of their own, much in the same way MacDonald Carey did in Shadow Of A Doubt? Son John is a clear amalgam of Bruno and Uncle Charlie, so much so as to suggest Alfred Hitchcock himself lent a guiding hand. My suspicion as to that found confirmation in a March 1951 interview Leo McCarey gave to The New York Times during production on My Son John. There’s a lot of the suspense element in the film and McCarey boasts of having gone directly to the master --- Alfred Hitchcock --- for pointers, said the article, while McCarey added: This is my first Hitchcock. He even ran off the first four reels of his new film for me. I’m taking a lot of kidding about how I stop before every shot and try to figure out how Hitchcock would do it. I may even put myself in one scene like he does. Those four reels McCarey referred to were from Strangers On A Train, awaiting July 1951 release as he continued laboring on My Son John. Did Hitchcock suggest the partial recap of his own Shadow of A Doubt? And was Robert Walker’s casting the result of McCarey’s sneak peek at those reels? There’s enough of Bruno in John to suggest AH lent advice as regards the characterization. Certainly McCarey showed a very public willingness to be guided by the Master’s counsel, though he drew a line at staging suspense of a melodramatic, "chase" type. Hoping to start a new trend, according to the article, McCarey identified his My Son John goal thus: It’s more a suspense of ideas in conflict. That may have been the film’s essential problem as things turned out. With Hitchcock fully in charge, we’d have had at the least a full-throttled espionage plot with John at its center, and perhaps a whammo finish atop the Washington Monument. AH would certainly have ditched propaganda in accordance with past policy and delivered a thriller fans might not have waited these forty years to see again. Would My Son John be a classic today if Leo McCarey had collaborated as writer with director and final decision-maker Alfred Hitchcock?

8 Comments:

Anonymous Jim Cobb said...

John---

I missed the TCM showing though vaguely remember the ABC showing long ago. Here is an interesting take on the film from SLANT magazine. Enjoy.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/01/late-leo-mccarey-and-his-deformed-son-john/

Jim Cobb

8:50 AM  
Anonymous John Seal said...

I saw the film on the UC Berkeley campus, sometime in 1981 or '82. The film made a huge impression on me, but until TCM's airing I hadn't had the opportunity to see it again. It's nice to read confirmation of the influence of Shadow of a Doubt...

3:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Reading these kind of posts reminds me of just how technology truly is omnipresent in this day and age, and I am fairly confident when I say that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.


I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as technology further develops, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I dream about every once in a while.


(Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://kwstar88.insanejournal.com/397.html]R4i SDHC[/url] DS qqPost)

2:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How did 50s Paramount films stay on network TV so long? I remember lots of late 40s-50s Paramounts on ABC and NBC in the early 70s.

11:42 AM  
Blogger Lou Lumenick said...

Possibly because of rights issues, Paramount continued dribbling out the TV debut of its '50 titles all the way into the '80s, when stuff like "Cross My Heart,'' "Mr. Music'' and "The Turning Point'' finally showed up. We're still waiting for Mitchell Leisen's "Darling, How Could You'' (1951) and as far as I know, George Stevens "Something to Live For'' hasn't been seen since its ABC airing in 1974.

3:07 PM  
Anonymous r.j. said...

John,

My Dear Son. Thanks so much for this. I gobbled-up your earlier post on this, several years ago, and so was really pleasantly (in a perverse way, I guess) surprised when you had this follow-up. For the record, I've never seen the picture and I don't think I really want to. Considering everything from Hayes to Dean Jagger's violently patriotic-obsessed character to the truly bizarre sounding finale cobbled together after poor Bob Walker's death, the whole pudding sounds grotesque to an extent that makes "Freaks" seem positively wholesome!

However, in all fairness, it should be pointed-out, that at the time this was made, Leo was an enormous power in the industry, and didn't have to play second violin to anyone, even the great Sir Alfred! Leo's reputation made through, not just the Crosby films, but such solid hits as "Ruggle In Red Gaps" (as Samuel Goldwyn called it), "The Awful Truth" (for which he had won the Oscar that year) and "Love Affair" put him very solidly in the front-rank of movie makers. Leo was one of the very few who could write his own ticket at any studio in town and be cordially welcomed.

Leo, however, had a major problem: He was as bad an alcoholic as Walker. Some of his films either never got made, or were finished by others because he had a particularly destructive habit of smashing-up cars (and himself) on a fairly consistent basis.

I've told you this before, that around 1948, my father and his then-partner, actor/writer Tony Ellis were under contract (as writers) for what I gather was a very short duration to Rainbow Productions. Dad could not say enough great things about Leo in later-years, but did attest to the fact that the term of employment ended abruptly after Leo smashed-up another car one evening. The intended project, with the intrguing title "Adam and Eve" and which was to star James Stewart, was called-off, Dad and Tony's contract was sold to David Butler Productions, and the two moved-over to Warners'.

McCarey's method of "improvising" scenes without a completed script was nothing new, nor unique to this project, however -- this is how Leo approached EVERY project he ever did, probably a hold-over from the old Hal Roach days. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. In the case of "Son John", this just sounds like the most benighted production of anything in recorded history!

Before his death, McCarey did several interviews with Peter Bogdanovich from his sick bed. His memory seems to have been going by then, but it's well-worth seeking out, if you haven't done so.

Great post, however.

R.J.

11:38 AM  
Blogger Andy Rector said...

Is there available to read somewhere an original script, with some idea of McCarey's original ending (i.e. whatever was written before Walker's death necessitated his murder in the film)? At the Margaret Herrick, they hold two drafts of the shooting script, and both have the ending as was (re)written after Walker's death. I'd love to get a hint about your sources and resources on the MSJ production details you tell so well here.
Big fan of your work sir!
Andy Rector

12:09 AM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Hi Andy, and thanks for your kind remarks re Greenbriar. My book, "Showmen, Sell It Hot," has an expanded chapter on "My Son John," which includes notes on sources. No info on script drafts, and don't recall details on changes to the ending. Whatever I know about that would be in the book chapter, as I haven't gone back into the topic since "Showmen" was published.

7:38 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024