Stills That Speak #5

STS: Mr. and Mrs. Joan Crawford at Home, Nick Adams ❤'s Godzilla, MGM Pulls Deluxe Trailers

PHILLIP TERRY’S THE “HEAD MAN” --- Never mind Crawford kids. What of hapless husbands? We might rate each according to respective images, being the relevant three were actors. Firstly Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., scion of more fame that Crawford could hope to achieve and so not ground to submission by her. She was besides a relative starter at the time and knew she had much to learn from him and elders, JC taught table manners from Mary amongst other proprieties. Call it a draw when she and Junior split. Then was Franchot Tone, cultivated and coming from class she lacked, knew acting besides from Group Theatre background, which she could not help respecting. Next and I’d say least potent of partners was Phillip Terry, who we imagine to be weak because he played weak parts in few important films he did, but wait, Terry was all-athletic at school, worked oil fields, seemingly no pushover. He and Joan adopted a boy they named Phillip Terry, Jr., the split leaving her with custody of this child whose name she’d change. Captions applied to fan gush here are smothered in present-day irony. “They’re a gloriously happy foursome with a normal family life,” says press of adoptive parents with Phillip Jr, soon Christopher and some-said-bad-seed Christina whose crucifixion of Mom would wait thirty more years. Divorce came on heels of this pose. Here’s my query: Did Phillip Terry, who lived till 1993, look back on his Crawford experience for publication? Any private comments that were eventually shared? I’d scour JC bios, but there are too many for my enfeebling mind to absorb. Imagine fun of watching a video cassette of Mommie Dearest in Terry’s den with him supplying live audio commentary. The movie actually takes place in large part during the Crawford-Terry marriage, though memory (mine) suggests he was nowhere depicted. I’d confirm but for blood oath never to sit through Mommie Dearest again.

GOJIRA FINDS A FRIEND IN NICK ADAMS --- Two for pop culture’s scrapheap? Snob industry figured Adams for slumming when he traveled (far) east to play opposite Japanese monsters, but Nick grooved with it and publicly said so. We admire him the more for helping Frankenstein conquer the world and harnessing astro-menaces. I’m mixed up as to Baragon’s placement among Nippon gargantuans, but Nick appears to have worked with him/it, maybe more than once. Might Nick Adams have become Toho’s first ongoing imported-from-America star? Data is out there no doubt, but I’m not conversant beyond seeing Frankenstein Conquers the World when new in 1966 and forgetting same utterly since. More than this one still has surfaced of Nick interacting with others of Toho employ. A somewhat portly Godzilla was between battling Mothra (aka “The Thing”) and next seen at loggerheads with Ghidrah, though as I complained before, there seemed no Ghidrah sightings within sixty square miles of me, this making it seem as though monsters from Japan were no longer welcome in Yank theatres. A Godzilla lull. Was he washed up for keeps? Thankfully no … he’s bigger in 2024 than ever based on all-time highest receipts for a latest, plus critic/fan response gone through roofs of enthusiasm. Is Nick Adams examining here an actual model they used for filming Godzilla? Was there a split between guys wearing the rubber suit and miniatures to be used when the monster stomped on smaller structures? It occurs to me that Godzilla has been doing his thing for seventy years now, longer even than James Bond. Did Nick Adams divine a future the rest of us missed? I choose not to believe his death was deliberate. A mystery yes, but aspects suggest it was accidental, or darker, depending on one’s own interpretation of facts.

MGM MAKES TRAILERS SOMETHING SPECIAL --- Trailers as an art form all their own await recognition yet, but for how many were previews a highpoint of days at the show? They all seem identical nowadays … could that be for essentially same personnel assembling the lot? Greenbriar wrote of trailers in 2008 with emphasis on collecting them back before most that exist could be accessed online. Now we can call up most any title and find, somewhere, its original preview. “The Exhibitor” as bugler to the trade did March 12, 1952 coverage of MGM’s focus on two minute promos that in many a circumstance entertained as well as a lead feature. “Personalized” pitching often involved stars or support players brought on to share news of an upcoming attraction. These had been done from the thirties forward … Bela Lugosi for Mark of the Vampire, the four stars of Libeled Lady together in offscreen antics, lavish trailers a signal to exhibition that no stone would stay unturned where selling was the goal. Just as animation had its wing, so too did trailers. Sometimes the two would merge, as when cartoonists drew one minute’s length on behalf of Adam’s Rib, a sort of teaser to go out in addition to a longer lure for the 1949 comedy, latter featuring narration by “a Smith named Pete,” a man who habitually found himself funnier than others did, or is it just me? However way, Smith surely helped Adam’s Rib, his trailer a curiosity if not a joy listening to. This and a plethora of others stream at TCM address. One I could not locate however was It’s a Big Country, which has Gary Cooper riding out to his ranch mailbox where word awaits of the 1951 Metro omnibus. The preview was around on 16mm, but nowhere now it seems, unless under an Internet stone I have left unturned.

The Exhibitor says Leo specialty-sold mostly drama and comedy, “the big musicals can sell themselves most effectively by utilizing direct material,” by which they meant scenes, excerpts from songs, nothing specifically filmed for the trailer. An exception was On the Town, which had narration plus the opening James A. FitzPatrick title card to herald his participation. Question arises as to how many previews FitzPatrick participated in? Or Pete Smith? Or John Nesbitt of “Passing Parade” fame, who stepped up for The Man With a Cloak. I came across Lionel Barrymore narrating for The Happy Years, Clark Gable and Broderick Crawford on-camera for Lone Star, the pair riding up to camera front with assurance that we’ll enjoy their new western. Then there was Red Skelton doing what looks like a couple day’s work to promote Watch the Birdie, as though Red were giving us a comedy short to herald his comedy feature. Westward the Women offered a reel’s worth of behind-scenes and highlights that amounted to a docu-subject and invaluable record of the feature’s making. Lavishness of trailers tailed off after the early fifties unless Leo had something really special to sell, which for one was High Society in 1956, Bing Crosby greeting Ed Sullivan on a Metro soundstage having what sounds like unrehearsed conversation about High Society amidst generous clips. Trailers could run long, apply the hard sell by means that could and did amuse latter-day audiences. I ran one for Scaramouche for several weeks leading up to a university playdate, crowds seeing it often enough to chant “Scaramouche!” in unison with the narrator as he repeated the name throughout. Abiding mystery is for what movie did Debbie Reynolds and Fernando Lamas do a special MGM preview, as shown in the photo here. Not knowing points up the number, probably great number, of unique trailers I’ve yet to see.