Before Walt Disney released his animated version in 1951, Paramount filmed a mostly live-action version of “Alice in Wonderland” back in 1933. It’s just as odd as Lewis Carroll’s literary classic from which it was adapted and proved to be a box office failure. Charlotte Henry was cast as the cute but somewhat bland heroine, Alice, who daydreams her way through a series of adventures in Wonderland. As you can see by the still below, Cary Grant played the Mock Turtle.
Hopefully you caught the sarcasm. It’s true - the star was completely covered in costume from head to toe, as was comedian W.C. Fields who portrayed Humpty Dumpty. While their voices were fairly recognizable, the actors were not. MGM was very careful in making sure that the faces of the actors in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) were not hidden by their makeup and costumes.
Here’s a set still of the room where Alice has her daydream, which leads into her adventure:
The accompanying scene, where Alice wishes she could see what’s on the other side of the mirror.
A set still of one of the fantastic doors Alice goes through in Wonderland. The set design for this film was extremely creative, doing a great job of capturing the surreal world that Alice visits.
The dining room table for the grand banquet scene:
A frame from the film, with Edna May Oliver on the right as the Red Queen. At least you could see her face!
Note the “Queen Alice” on the chair:
A second shot of the table:
When stitched together, you get a view of the entire room:
Last year, I went to a service for a family member at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego. In researching who else was buried there, I learned that actress Charlotte Henry had her final resting place outdoors on the hill.
I had to go back to take a second photo, as a friend pointed out that the plot I had captured was actually that of her mother. Charlotte was buried under her married name, Dempsey, right next to Mama.
More on Holy Cross in a future post! See more Paramount set still photos at my main website.
I recently discovered the book Straight Lady (2022), by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian. I was so excited to see that a book had been written on Margaret Dumont, one of the greatest straight women in motion pictures and also known as the fifth Marx Brothers. Always the haughty dowager, she lent an air of dignity that provided the perfect counterpart for the zaniness of Groucho and his brothers. Sadly, the book was a supreme disappointment. Other than some brief new information on Margaret’s early (and somewhat scandalous!) life, the book is more about the career of the Marx Brothers than any new info on the comedienne. Fraught with errors, the level of writing rarely progresses beyond that of a high school report. It also appears that the level of research done was low; vintage newspaper articles seem to supply most of the semi-interesting information. Margaret deserved much more. To rectify this situation, today’s post celebrates Margaret Dumont with photos from my collection. From an interview at the time of the release of “A Night at the Opera” (1935):
I was a bit dubious about the Marx Brothers when Sam Harris asked me to play opposite them in “The Cocoanuts” (1929), and I’ll have to admit truthfully that I’m still dubious. Sam told me that the Marx Brothers needed an actress who could learn the art of playing straight, someone with dignity and poise to act as legitimate dramatic balance for their comedy. Naturally I considered Sam’s proposal a compliment and the chance to appear with the Marx Brothers a real opportunity. What Sam didn’t tell me nearly caused me to suffer a nervous breakdown after three weeks as Groucho’s leading lady. He pushed me out of windows, pulled chairs out from under me, broiled steaks in the fireplace of my apartment, put frogs in my bathtub, and made my life miserable in general on the stage and off. I don’t regret a minute of it. Everything the Marx Brothers do comes under the heading of good, clean sport. They are the best friends I have.
A classic scene between Margaret and Groucho from “Duck Soup” (1933):
Margaret bristled whenever she was referred to as a “stooge”:
It has been amusing, as well as profitable, to be associated with the Marx Brothers, but please don’t refer to me as their stooge. Leading lady, yes, but stooge—it’s a terrible word, isn’t it?
“A Night at the Opera” (1935) was the first MGM film for the Marx Brothers. Both Groucho and Sig Ruman are fighting for the affections (and millions) of Margaret’s widowed character, Mrs. Claypool.
If you aren’t convinced that Margaret was a good sport (both on and off screen with the Marx Brothers), this scene from “A Day at the Races” (1937) is proof.
That’s not a stunt double; that’s Margaret herself. Already in her fifties, she was a great sport and did most of her own stunts. She never knew what the brothers were going to do next; regardless, she kept a straight face and went along with their hijinks.
Margaret also worked with W.C. Fields…twice. Her first movie was “Never Give a Sucker and Even Break” (1941). From an interview that she gave at time, she discusses just how much work into being a “straight woman”:
Many a comedian’s lines have been lost on the screen because the laughter overlapped. Script writers build up to a laugh, but they don’t allow any pause for it. That’s where I come in. I ad-lib—it doesn’t matter what I say—just to kill a few seconds so you can enjoy the gag. I have to sense when the big laughs will come and fill in or the audience will drown out the next gag with its own laughter.
Check out those eyebrows! Her character’s name was Mrs. Hemoglobin, the mother of a very beautiful young girl (Susan Miller). Of course, Mrs. Hemoglobin is very wealthy…but also disgusted with men. As she warns her daughter:
Men. Men. They're all alike. They'll deceive you as your father did me. He kissed a chorus girl and when I found out he said, ‘Oh, I was drunk and didn't know what I was doing.’
Her daughter wonders if Fields drinks, too. To that, Dumont’s character imperiously replies:
He didn't get that nose from playing ping-pong.
Fields attempts to woo the resistant Mrs. Hemoglobin, but in the end, leaves her alone at the altar.
Surprisingly, not a word is written about the deleted sequence Dumont filmed with Fields for “Tales of Manhattan” (1942).
The book does mention Dumont’s “role” in “Auntie Mame” (1958):
In mid-1958, Margaret landed a plum role in the Warner Bros. television version of “Auntie Mame” starring opposite Academy Award-winning actress Rosalind Russell.…The veteran actress would portray an arrogant British noblewoman in the Technirama, technicolor show based on the long-running Broadway stage hit.
“Aunt Mame” was a movie, not a TV show. As for the “plum role,” it was an uncredited part. Unless you know to look for Dumont, there is a good chance you would miss her.
Dumont’s final gig was on The Hollywood Palace, which aired on April 17, 1965. She was reunited with Groucho and the two performed a reprise of the “Hooray for Captain Spaulding” sketch, from their 1930 comedy “Animal Crackers.”
Here is a clip from their sketch:
Groucho paid homage to Dumont at the 1974 Oscars ceremony, but managed to get in an untrue dig that has unfortunately been taken to be the truth:
She was a great straight woman for me, even though she never understood my jokes.
Dumont understood every one of the gags; there is no way she could have reacted and given pause the way that she did.
Here’s to Margaret and hopes that one day, someone will do a proper bio of her.
See more Margaret Dumont & the Marx Brothers photos at my main website.
It would appear that Shirley Temple and W.C. Fields ALMOST starred together three times, but sadly, nothing of those attempts came to fruition. Today’s post gives what information I could dig up on the subject.
1. It’s A Gift (1934) appears to be the first opportunity for Shirley and Fields. Released by Paramount on November 30, 1934, the production for the film occurred between September 4 and October 12, 1934; production on Paramount’s “Now and Forever” with Shirley wrapped up on August 29, so the timing would have been about right. The way I first heard about this was by listening to the commentary on the recently released Kino Lorber blu-ray for “It’s A Gift,” by film historian James L. Neibaur where he reveals this: Fields originally wanted two daughters, and he even suggested Shirley Temple for the younger child’s role, but they eventually decided on a son, played by Tommy Bupp.
Above, Kathleen Howard is shown playing Field’s wife in “It’s A Gift,” alongside Tommy Bupp and Jean Rouverol as their kids. I bought Neibaur’s book on Fields to see if he cited a source or gave any more information about the potential casting of Shirley, but nada, zip, zilcho. In the excellent James Curtis biography on Fields, the author describes that “It’s A Gift” was based on a silent film called “The Comic Supplement.”
Fields went to work massaging “The Supplement” into a new eleven-page story outline to which he affixed the title “Back Porch.” “The opening scene is in a grocery store,” he began, laying the groundwork. “I own the store. I have a wife and a young daughter, about 17 years of age (Joan Marsh type) and a younger daughter (about the age of Shirley Temple). A little boy is never so funny with me as a little girl. I can’t explain very well why. The little girl is annoying the father all the way through, and the wife is the type that is bullying me all the time.”…Next came the “Back Porch” scene, which he thought “really was awful” in the first film. “This is where a baby works. I feel Shirley Temple wouldn’t hit me over the head. She’s a little too old, but a baby would. So have Baby LeRoy in this sequence.”
Curtis’ book also never mentions how far the casting of Shirley got or why the character was changed. While at Paramount, Shirley did a number of promotional shots with Baby LeRoy, perhaps in anticipation of her being featured with him in a Fields movie. Here she is in costume for her first Paramount feature, “Little Miss Marker” with Baby LeRoy and director Alexander Hall:
In a staged publicity shot for a story about the two kids going on a “date,” the studio naturally promoted another one of their stars, Mae West, by using an a-frame for her film “It Ain’t No Sin” in the photo.
2. Dimples (1936)The American Film Institute website tells us that Fields and Temple ALMOST teamed up for this 20th Century-Fox production. The following cast suggestions were listed in material in the Fox Produced Scripts Collection: W. C. Fields as “Professor Eustace Appleby”; Edna May Oliver as “Mrs. Caroline Drew”; Michael Whalen as “Allen Drew”; Claude Gillingwater as “Colonel Loring”; Warren Hymer as “Patrolman”; and Borrah Minevitch and His Gang. A December 1935 Hollywood Reporter news item states Fox was negotiating with Paramount to borrow Fields. What happened to those negotiations is unknown.
Frank Morgan ended up with the role, just as he did with…
3. The Wizard of Oz (1939) There are many famous stories about how Shirley Temple almost got the part of Dorothy in this classic children’s tale. “Almost” is stretching it. 20th Century-Fox’s Darryl Zanuck never approved a trade of his studio’s biggest moneymaker, and the creative team behind “The Wizard of Oz” always favored Judy Garland, so Shirley’s casting in the film never really amounted to much. On the other hand, Fields came very close to playing the parts of Professor Marvel and The Wizard. Curtis’ book gives us this information:
Across town, just two days prior to Fields’ calamitous Chase & Sanborn broadcast [June 5, 1938], the purchase of “The Wizard of Oz” was finalized by M.G.M.…plans were to shoot the film with Judy Garland as Dorothy and Ed Wynn in the title role. Wynn was the choice of producer Mervyn LeRoy, who was making his first picture for MGM, but Arthur Freed, LeRoy’s assistant, and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, the lyricist, both wanted Fields for the part.…With the abrogation of his Paramount contract, it was a job Fields was perfectly amenable to doing.…The screenwriting team of Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allen Woolf had already expanded the role for a player of Fields’ stature, creating a real-world counterpart for the Wizard in the person of Professor Marvel. Actor Frank Morgan was on their minds when they first broached the idea of adding the Professor, an old medicine man, tot he film, but by the time their first revision of the script was delivered, on June 13, 1938, Marvel had taken on a dwarf assistant and the Professor spoke with a distinctly Fieldsian bravado. Fields began making notes on how he would play the character—brief scribbles on random bits of paper, carefully tethered together and typed by Magda Michael. He envisioned Marvel as an old con man working “the fortune telling racket like they do in Chicago” and sleeping on park benches. Among the ideas: Oiling the Tin Man’s joints • When F. sees the lion—“My gosh, that’s wonderful, he even smells like a lion.” • Someone says, “I want to light a cigarette—put the cyclone machine in reverse.” • Re cyclone: Tell about the big wind in Ireland. It blew a cow up against the side of a barn and he stick there and starved to death. • When Prof. Marvel is telling Dorothy’s fortune (aside): “Yes, your aunt wants you back. She wants to put you in moving pictures like Shirley Temple.”
In the meantime, Fields signed a contract with Universal, allowing him to do an original story (“You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man”).
At first, Fields thought he could work “The Wizard of Oz” into his schedule—Yip Harburg had written the Wizard’s climactic speech with him in mind—but now he was, apart from Deanna Durbin, the biggest star on the Universal lot, and no time would be lost in announcing his engagement. After pained exchanges over conflicting dates—both pictures were set to start in October—Fields reluctantly withdrew from “The Wizard of Oz,” relinquishing the part to Frank Morgan.
In hindsight, Morgan was a much better choice. He made his characters memorable, but they didn’t overshadow Garland’s performance. In addition, there is a tenderness to Morgan’s performance that would have been lacking if Fields had played the role instead.
In that wonderful alternate universe, it would have been interesting to see Temple and Fields together in a film. I have a feeling that the chemistry would have been off the charts!
See more Classic Movie and TV photos at my main website.
In this publicity still for “The Blue Bird” (1940), Shirley seems to be inquiring why Father Time (played by Thurston Hall) has no wristwatch. Sorry Shirley, but the hourglass works just fine. Hall had a long career in films, beginning with the silent era and ending in 1956. Although he had many uncredited roles, his distinguished voice and demeanor made him a memorable supporting player. Besides “Father Time,” he also co-starred with W.C. Fields in “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man” (photo below at left) and Deanna Durbin in “Three Smart Girls Grow Up” and “Lady on a Train.”
Here’s another shot of him from “The Blue Bird,” as he directs who is (and isn’t) allowed to board the silver ship that sails to earth with the unborn children:
See more Shirley Temple in “The Blue Bird” photos at my main website.
“Tales of Manhattan” to be more exact. In 1942, Twentieth Century-Fox released the anthology film by that name, based on Francisco Rojas González's novel, Historia de un frac ("Story of a Tailcoat"). It took thirteen writes to put together six different stories about the effect that a supposedly cursed suit has on its owners. The all-star cast included Rita Hayworth, Cesar Romero, Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, and Paul Robeson. W.C. Fields filmed what was to be the fifth “tale” (tail vs. tale, get it?), which was ultimately deleted for purposes of length and tone.
When previewed, Fields’ sequence, which also starred Phil Silvers, Marcel Dalio, and Margaret Dumont, stole the show. Supposedly other cast members were not happy about how Fields dominated the movie, so in the end, it was cut. The footage survives, and has been released, along with the alternate takes of which there were many.
Each take is a gem, as Fields ad libs the lines differently in each one.
Wait, Margaret Dumont? That’s correct. She wasn’t strictly a straight woman for the Marx Brothers.
In fact, she had just previously worked with Fields in “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” over at Universal in 1941:
When “Manhattan” was filmed, Fields was on the physical decline. At the age of 62, his life of drinking had caught up with him, and studios were not inclined to hire him to carry a film. His frequent ad-libbing made it difficult for directors (and actors) to work with him as well. Fox figured putting him in a short-sequence in “Manhattan” would be the best way to minimize their risk.
If you get the chance to see this sequence and its outtakes, do so! Here it is on youtube:
When it comes to wax museums, people typically love 'em or hate 'em. I’m in the former camp, as I believe they are (if done properly) an art form. Creating a life-like representation of someone in wax is not easily done, and includes not only the face, but body, hands, clothing, and setting. Overall, the now defunct Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park did a damn good job. This batch of November 1976 images show you some of their finer work. Here is their depiction of W.C. Fields as he looked in the movie “Poppy.”
Good job on the face!
Look at the detail on the bottle which also includes a poppy:
Even the clapboard is accurate in the information that it provides:
The Marilyn Monroe figure isn’t too bad; definitely successful with the hair, costume, and the body:
The face is just a bit off though; I can’t quite put my finger on it but her face looks a little manly to me.
“The Beverly Hillbillies” tableau is a complete winner:
Granny (Irene Ryan) was captured to perfection!
Last but not least is the Shirley Temple area of the museum. The scenery provides a whimsical background for the most popular child star ever with a nod to her hit song “On the Good Ship Lollipop.” Maybe someone should have told the set designers that the ship was referring to an airplane.
As far as Shirley herself goes, they truly did an outstanding job with the face, body, hair (and that’s not an easy hairdo to successfully recreate!), and clothes:
See more vintage Movieland Wax Museum photos at my main website.
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