Warner Archive once more shows that everything old is new again regarding the August 22, 2017 DVD release of the 1935 George Cukor comic melodrama "Sylvia Scarlett." This first collaboration between Cukor, Katherine Hepburn, and Cary Grant is a mash-up of "Boys Don't Cry" and (the Unreal TV reviewed) "Victor/Victoria." Hepburn plays the cross-dressing titular daughter of embezzler Henry Scarlett (Edmund "Santa" Gwenn), and Grant plays to type as suave jewel thief Jimmy Monkley.
The broad picture (neither pun intended) this time is that "Scarlett" reflects its time in that it shows the fading influence of silent movies, which reflect the influence of live-stage productions. The opening scene in the small Marseilles apartment of Henry and Scarlett has an especially strong stage performance vibe, but the makeup is not as heavy as in early talkies and the emoting only borders the intensity of silents and very early talkies.
Our story begins with Sylvia and recently widowed Henry fleeing France for England to evade the arrest of Henry for "borrowing" funds from his employer. They meet Monkley on a ship to England while Sylvia is disguises as Sylvester Scarlett to as part of her great escape.
The Scarletts soon joining forces with an oblivious Monkley leads to a hilarious early attempt at a grift by Sylvester; their next scheme going better leads to them going "on the road" with new partner-in-crime Maude.
Hilarity (including an early screen girl-on-girl kiss) fully ensues on the troupe befriending noble in title alone artist Michael Fane, who takes an immediate liking to Sylvester and subsequently gives a damn about Sylvia. Loose woman Lily being in the picture complicates the latter relationship.
Much of the "melo" in the dramatic aspects of the film relate to Henry having addictions that make life rough for both him and his offspring. Lily contributes to this element in a pivotal scene that drives the final third of the film. Cukor saves the best hilarity for last regarding this development. We get the treats of Sylvia facing a form of deliverance and also going full Hepburn in defying a traffic cop only to find herself a guest of the king.
The final scenes provide a very satisfying conclusion in this film from the early era of the Hays Code. Everyone gets what he or she deserves, and the required number of feet remain on the ground when unmarried men and women find themselves alone in intimate surroundings.
Archive enhances all this with the apt short and cartoon that seem to be a staple of their DVD releases of Golden Age films.
The 1935 Travel Talk documentary "Los Angeles: The Wonder City of the West," which presumably played with "Scarlett" in theaters, is highly amusing to folks who are not fully hung up on political correctness and who recognize the era in which these films are made. This movie focuses on the influence of Mexico on the City of Angels. Scenes of a Mexican neighborhood in which every man apparently wears a sombrero is adequately amusing from the aforementioned perspective. A highly insensitive shot of a chihuahua sitting in a piece of Mexican pottery is hilarious from the perspective of someone in 2017 watching this 82 year-old film.
The 1935 "Happy Harmonies" (rather than "Silly Symphonies," "Merrie Meoldies," or "Looney Tunes") cartoon "Alias St. Nick" presumably also accompanied "Scarlett" on the silver screen. This one that has a family of mice attacking a cat who is posing as a pseudo Santa is hilarious from the perspective of someone who has watched 1,000s of violent cartoons without so much as throwing a punch in his life. Mice turning holiday gifts into weapons and a cat ending up with firecrackers in the back of his pants is funny no matter what the killjoys assert.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Scarlett" is strongly encouraged to email me; you alternatively can connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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