Sweepings (1933) Teaches Tired Lesson That The Rich Don't Have It So Good
Lionel Barrymore builds a department store
empire, but has nothing other than worthless kids to leave it to. Depressioners understood that spawn of the
rich was good for nothing, this a price the rich must pay for being rich.
Robber barons losing out on life essentials was balm to have-nots. Wives,
particularly second and trophy ones, were invariably faithless, steadfast mates
from the climb up having been discarded once the tycoon made his pile. Precode
could lay blame on the system, capitalism itself a breeder of decay within
families. Spencer Tracy, Paul Muni, and Edward G. Robinson reaped bitter harvest of accumulating too much, while those who had excess fun at it, like a
Warren William, got final reel death for a pay-off. All this was by way of
telling viewers that they were better off with the little they had. Just enough
dimes for movie tickets should be enough to fulfill most of life’s hope. To
grab for more was to invite disaster, the American dream of wealth often as not
a nightmare.
Sweepings was part of RKO’s 1932-33 season
supervised by David Selznick. He’d been forthright in condemning RKO product, most of it flung out in bulk and indiscriminate as to
quality. These had been overseen by William LeBaron, his policies an escort to
receivership for the company. Motion pictures were as much piece goods to
LeBaron, whose greater responsibility as he saw it was to service RKO's many affiliated theatres. Selznick thought of film in terms of
individual achievement and felt that fewer, and better, would rescue the
company. He was right to extent of ones he personally oversaw: Little Women,
What Price Hollywood?, Topaze. Then there was King Kong, which Selznick enabled
and supported through internal challenges to its concept and budget. His most
valued relationships with co-workers were born at RKO, George Cukor an
oft-associate after two he directed under DOS auspices, and John Cromwell would report to the later and independent Selznick shop thanks to work done on
Sweepings. The film can be had on Warner Archive DVD.
Warren William was cheerfully unpunished and unrepentant at the end of the pre-code "Employee Entrance".
But yes, in the code days they were generally careful not to blame capitalism or indeed any established system. Unhappy rich brought it down on their own heads by unnecessary sin or crime; moviegoers could tell themselves they'd handle wealth better. Costume pictures were usually about restoring a rightful hereditary ruler. They gingerly avoided endorsing revolution or sedition, framing it as lawful to go up against a usurping Prince John, a caliph's evil cousin, or a corrupt agent of a distant monarch.
The American Revolution was, of course, absolutely approved and endorsed. The French Revolution, in American movies at least, was perhaps justified by evil aristocrats ruining it for everybody, but unnecessarily savage. The bullies calling everybody "Citizen" and their calculating leaders might have been a subtle commentary on the Soviet Union, which Yanks rated even worse than Czarist Russia. Note how Hollywood films of the French Revolution often have events taking place in England, where good manners and a general mellowness allowed a similar social order to endure.
RKO remade SWEEPINGS in 1939 as THREE SONS, with almost no star names in the cast. Edward Ellis is terrific in the Lionel Barrymore role, and J. Edward Bromberg (who can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned) is poignant as Ellis's immigrant hired hand. The film was a vehicle for radio's "Gateway to Hollywood" talent contest, which introduced young hopefuls to a national audience. The winners received movie contracts already made out with new "screen names." THREE SONS introduced "Virginia Vale" (formerly Dorothy Howe, of Paramount) and "Robert Stanton" (Kirby Grant).
It is hard to imagine Selznick had to score KING KONG out of his own pocket as RKO was ready to release it without music. Max Steiner's score is so perfect it is insane. The animation is great, yes, but the music sells the show.
5 Comments:
Warren William was cheerfully unpunished and unrepentant at the end of the pre-code "Employee Entrance".
But yes, in the code days they were generally careful not to blame capitalism or indeed any established system. Unhappy rich brought it down on their own heads by unnecessary sin or crime; moviegoers could tell themselves they'd handle wealth better. Costume pictures were usually about restoring a rightful hereditary ruler. They gingerly avoided endorsing revolution or sedition, framing it as lawful to go up against a usurping Prince John, a caliph's evil cousin, or a corrupt agent of a distant monarch.
The American Revolution was, of course, absolutely approved and endorsed. The French Revolution, in American movies at least, was perhaps justified by evil aristocrats ruining it for everybody, but unnecessarily savage. The bullies calling everybody "Citizen" and their calculating leaders might have been a subtle commentary on the Soviet Union, which Yanks rated even worse than Czarist Russia. Note how Hollywood films of the French Revolution often have events taking place in England, where good manners and a general mellowness allowed a similar social order to endure.
RKO remade SWEEPINGS in 1939 as THREE SONS, with almost no star names in the cast. Edward Ellis is terrific in the Lionel Barrymore role, and J. Edward Bromberg (who can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned) is poignant as Ellis's immigrant hired hand. The film was a vehicle for radio's "Gateway to Hollywood" talent contest, which introduced young hopefuls to a national audience. The winners received movie contracts already made out with new "screen names." THREE SONS introduced "Virginia Vale" (formerly Dorothy Howe, of Paramount) and "Robert Stanton" (Kirby Grant).
It is hard to imagine Selznick had to score KING KONG out of his own pocket as RKO was ready to release it without music. Max Steiner's score is so perfect it is insane. The animation is great, yes, but the music sells the show.
Selznick also "discovered" Fred Astaire for the movies.
But Selznick tried to give the bums rush to Wheeler & Woolsey, a crime I will never forgive.
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