Thrice-Told Tale and Counting ...
George Brent and Brenda Marshall Are Crime-Busting Partners in You Can't Escape Forever (1942)
From that era when a "Big Scoop" meant
something, and what you couldn't escape forever, or even briefly, was remakes by Warners --- in this case a
third in less than ten years --- of Hi, Nellie, which would be done yet again
in 1949 as The House Across The Street. WB exhumed scripts like
Frankenstein would cadavers, a merest reheat made good to go however stale the
bread. Didn't anyone by '49 shout out, I've seen this four times!? Imagine too
when late shows played two/three Hi Nellies in clueless succession. You Can't
Escape Forever was a B, George Brent and Brenda
Marshall as spatting lovers after His Girl
Friday example, only he's bored and she's glum. Marshall had a way of looking morose minus a
big smile, which she couldn't wear all the time. Victor Mature once admitted to
the same problem, saying he couldn't enter a party without beaming, folks
otherwise to think he was sore over something. Longer wartime runs for
"A" product would diminish need for as many B's, but cheap tents
didn't fold altogether. You Can't Escape Forever might stand
co-feature duty at Warner-owned theatres, but in smaller situations play single or top-of-modest bill placement, as here where Forever lords it
over Hal Roach Streamliner The Devil With Hitler.
I recently saw YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FOREVER and enjoyed it quite well. In addition to being a remake of HI, NELLIE, I discovered that the opening of YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FOREVER also borrows heavily from WB's FRONT PAGE WOMAN (1935) in which Brent starred with Bette Davis. I wonder if audiences of the day felt the same sense of deja vu I did watching Marshall having trouble coping with covering an execution -- "Didn't I see this already?!"
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Laura
Thanks, Laura. Very interesting what you wrote at your site about the UCLA showing of "Railroaded" last week. Makes me want to get out the old DVD and see how it compares to what you described ...
ReplyDeleteTNT used to run the Warners' originals following the remakes all the time, although I was always caught unawares. I'd VCR both in order to watch them on successive evenings. And five minutes into the original, I'd think, "Hold it, this is the same movie I watched last night, only older!" The strangest time was Kay Francis in the lead of "King of the Underworld," only to see her part played by Paul Muni in "Dr. Socrates."
ReplyDeleteDonald Benson considers the shelf life of olm films and their remakes:
ReplyDeleteRecycling scripts and stock footage fits with the assumption that films had zero long-term value, and that older films were not just forgotten but somehow unwatchable for later audiences. I recall reading that Universal's contract for producing the "Flash Gordon" serials included an expiration date when negative and all prints must be destroyed (Obviously, that deal was reconsidered. And somehow the serials -- along with Columbia's "Blondie" features -- ended up owned by King Features / Hearst Entertainment).
Anyway, the question: Was there a point when studios began thinking, "Hey, there might be some future revenue in ALL our product". It must have come fairly early; otherwise there wouldn't have been anything in the vaults to sell to television.