Dressler could finesse burlesque with subtler
shades, often within a single shot. As Min and Bill was the one to truly
establish her, bumps from it would be applied to quick-serve follow-ups. Not
since Mabel Normand had there been an actress to so meld slapstick with heart. Emma was first occasion for Dressler to carry bags more/less alone,
no Beery, Garbo, whoever, to claim equal, or more, viewer focus. Internal
concern was health trouble Dressler kept to herself as boxoffice rank rose;
what work she'd perform had to be limited, with rest periods frequent. Like with
Lon Chaney, MGM tried squeezing whatever juice they could from all too
perishable fruit. More Stars Than There Are In Heaven threatened to become More
Stars Were In Heaven Than Working At Metro, what with Chaney (1930), Dressler
(1934), later Harlow (1937), headed in that direction, plus William Haines,
Ramon Novarro, Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, dropping off top ranks as suddenly
as some got on. Emma had mixed reviews, mechanics more obvious each
time the formula was repeated. We could speculate as to how much longer Marie
Dressler would have lasted had she lived, though there isn't doubtof her being
at a summit when the end came. Marie Dressler rules at Greenbriar:How To Lose Your Job As A Motion Picture Exhibitor,Early Talkers On The Ropes,Unexpected Pleasures: Dressler and Moran,The Patsy (1928),Min and Bill. Be sure and listen to Farran Nehme's fine podcast survey of Marie Dressler's life and careerHEREat Karina Longworth's You Must Remember This site.
There was a Dressler quote -- was it here? -- in which she said her acting secret was to give a touch of the grand lady to a scrubwoman, and a touch of a scrubwoman to a grand lady.
Besides Lon Chaney, Marie Dressler and John Gilbert's passing, the deaths of additional MGM personnel (both current & former employees) during the thirties included a number of other high-profiled people: Renee Adoree (THE BIG PARADE; said to have contracted TB during the filming of THE TRAIL OF '98) and Joseph W. Farnham (the man who titled von Stroheim's GREED, later dialogue writer and, shortly before his death, head of the Short Subjects Dept.); and the suicides of Jean Harlow's spouse, producer Paul Bern; director George Hill (ex-spouse of Frances Marion and director of MIN & BILL and THE BIG HOUSE, at the time of his death reportedly overwhelmed at the prospect of directing THE GOOD EARTH); and Karl Dane, reduced to running a hot dog stand outside the Metro gates. Then there's Irving Thalberg's own death in 1936, and comedian Ted Healy's passing the following year.
The only comparison to MGM's death count or scandals of the thirties is what occurred at Paramount a decade earlier (the unjust Roscoe Arbuckle trials, drug addiction death of Wallace Reid, murder of director William Desmond Taylor and insinuations against Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand). Not easy times for even a studio head like Zukor or Mayer.
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There was a Dressler quote -- was it here? -- in which she said her acting secret was to give a touch of the grand lady to a scrubwoman, and a touch of a scrubwoman to a grand lady.
Besides Lon Chaney, Marie Dressler and John Gilbert's passing, the deaths of additional MGM personnel (both current & former employees) during the thirties included a number of other high-profiled people: Renee Adoree (THE BIG PARADE; said to have contracted TB during the filming of THE TRAIL OF '98) and Joseph W. Farnham (the man who titled von Stroheim's GREED, later dialogue writer and, shortly before his death, head of the Short Subjects Dept.); and the suicides of Jean Harlow's spouse, producer Paul Bern; director George Hill (ex-spouse of Frances Marion and director of MIN & BILL and THE BIG HOUSE, at the time of his death reportedly overwhelmed at the prospect of directing THE GOOD EARTH); and Karl Dane, reduced to running a hot dog stand outside the Metro gates. Then there's Irving Thalberg's own death in 1936, and comedian Ted Healy's passing the following year.
The only comparison to MGM's death count or scandals of the thirties is what occurred at Paramount a decade earlier (the unjust Roscoe Arbuckle trials, drug addiction death of Wallace Reid, murder of director William Desmond Taylor and insinuations against Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand). Not easy times for even a studio head like Zukor or Mayer.
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