The Strawberry Blonde

The Strawberry Blonde

Original movie poster
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Produced by Executive Producer
Hal B. Wallis
Associate Producer
William Cagney
Written by Play:
James Hagan
Script:
Julius J. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein
Starring James Cagney
Olivia de Havilland
Rita Hayworth
Alan Hale, Sr.
Jack Carson
Music by Heinz Roemheld
Cinematography James Wong Howe
Edited by William Holmes
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
  • February 21, 1941 (1941-02-21)
Running time
 97 min.
Country United States
Language English

The Strawberry Blonde is a 1941 Warner Bros. feature film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland, and featuring Rita Hayworth, Alan Hale, Jack Carson and George Tobias. The picture was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and features songs such as "The Band Played On", "Bill Bailey", "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louie," "Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie," and "Love Me and the World Is Mine." The title is most often listed with the The, but the film's posters and promotional materials call it simply Strawberry Blonde. Director Walsh remade the film in 1948 as One Sunday Afternoon.

Synopsis

In 1890s New York City, Biff Grimes (James Cagney) falls in love with society girl and strawberry blonde Virginia Brush (Rita Hayworth). However, Biff's more enterprising "pal" Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson) wins Virginia's affections. Biff ends up marrying Virginia's less glamorous best friend, Amy Lind (Olivia de Havilland), who Biff eventually realizes was the right one for him all the time.

Cast

Development and production

Both the director of Strawberry Blonde, Raoul Walsh, and its star James Cagney came to the project looking for a change of pace.[2] Walsh had just completed the dark Humphrey Bogart/Ida Lupino vehicle High Sierra, shot largely on location, and the good notices the film received had Walsh "as fired up as Jack Warner to keep the ball rolling on projects in development and production."[3] The transition between the outdoorsy film noir and the light and sentimental studio-centered Strawberry Blonde "proved no problem" for Walsh.[3]

Cagney had earned his stripes with Warner Bros. in the early 1930s playing tough guys, but he also had shown his talents at lighter, musical material in films like 1933's Footlight Parade[4] He left the studio in mid-decade, then returned in 1938 with a contract that gave him more control in choosing roles and brought his younger brother William Cagney onboard as assistant producer and informal buffer between himself and studio top brass.[5] But Cagney soon found himself getting slotted right back into tough guy parts and by 1940, he "wanted a nostalgic part—any part—to take him away from the gangsters he was now loathe [sic] to play."[6]

A property on the lot that might fill that bill was One Sunday Afternoon. It had started out early in 1933 as a successful Broadway play by James Hagan[7] and had been adapted later that year by Paramount as a vehicle for Gary Cooper. But it was "the only real flop of Cooper's stellar and carefully orchestrated career"[8]—and the only Cooper picture ever to lose money. James Cagney had qualms about it because it would be a remake,[6] and Jack Warner knew it needed "complete retooling."[8] But it was a "pet project" of William Cagney, who saw it as a "gift to [the brothers'] mother, Carrie Cagney, who would live only a few more years"[8] and Warner recognized the inside track that would give him with his often recalcitrant star. Warner screened the 1933 film and wrote a memo to his production head Hal B. Wallis telling him to watch it also: "It will be hard to stay through the entire running of the picture, but do this so you will know what not to do."[8]

Amy Lind shocks Biff with her modern "new ideas", so scandalous in the Gay '90s

Wallis knew the trick was to tailor the script as a vehicle for Cagney, who had yet to commit, either to the project or even to his brother. Wallis had a first draft screenplay done by Stephen Morehouse Avery that satisfied no one;[9] he called in the Epstein brothers, Julius and Phillip, for another vision—one that might hook Cagney into the project. The brothers and William all concurred that the first thing to do was move things from the play's midwest setting to New York City, "since they all knew it so much better."[6] Said Julius: "We thought the reason [the Cooper film] lost money was it was too bucolic. It took place in a little country town. We said 'Change it to the big city. Put it in New York.'"[10] The Epstein version quickly took shape, aided by the objective of making it a Cagney picture. "When we went on the rewrite," Julius said, "we knew it was for Cagney. That was a help."[10]

Yet still Cagney was reluctant. Wallis was getting impatient; he considered a young up-and-comer, John Garfield, for the role of Biff Grimes. By July 1940, concern about the impasse stretched all the way to New York, where Harry Warner cabled brother Jack that he was willing to give Cagney 10% of the gross.[6] Then Cagney began to budge. One issue was that he didn't want to play scenes with the much-taller Jack Carson; he would prefer the shorter Brian Donlevy, or the shorter-still Lloyd Nolan. Problem was, Nolan commanded $2,000 a week while Carson got just $750.[6] Despite Cagney's misgivings, Carson was cast as Hugo Barnstead.

More problematic was the casting of the Virginia Brush role, which was originally created for Ann Sheridan, the studio's "Oomph Girl."[11] But Sheridan was in one of her contract disputes with the studio and refused to do the film. Jack Warner asked Walsh to talk Sheridan into it, but she still refused.[6] Wallis tested actress Brenda Marshall for the part, but Walsh spoke up about "a girl" he had seen in several Columbia pictures: young Rita Hayworth. "He thought she was perfect for the part, and after she was signed without a hitch, from then on he always referred to Hayworth as his 'find' (despite [the splash she had made in] 1939's Only Angels Have Wings)."[6]

Virginia's flirtatious beauty captivates Biff and holds him tight for years afterward

Hayworth received $450 a week for the film and began work immediately with makeup man Perc Westmore to find the look for the title character in what would soon be retitled Strawberry Blonde. After shooting test footage and many stills of his makeup experiments, Westmore memoed Wallis: "Her head is so large and she has so much hair that it will practically be impossible to put a wig on her. Whatever color you decide on, she will be happy to have it made that color. Then at the end of the picture, we will dye it back to its natural color."[12] This film marked the first time Hayworth was seen as a redhead and the first and only time in her career that audiences heard her real singing voice.[12]

Pugnacious Biff calls out Nicholas's barbershop patron over Miss Brush's honor

Shooting on Strawberry Blonde started October 21, 1940. Wallis and Walsh quickly came to loggerheads. The producer thought his director was coming in too close on the actors, that the close-ups decreased the nostalgia by obscuring the period backgrounds. Wallis's October 29, 1940 memo chided "You have so much opportunity on this picture for atmosphere and composition... and I hate like hell to see them go by without full advantage being taken of what we have."[12] (Several months later, with Michael Curtiz on Yankee Doodle Dandy, Wallis's complaints would be just the opposite: "Mike, get the story from the actors' faces, instead of going all over the place.")[13] Walsh in reality had "memorized the entire script and had worked out every camera angle and move—a visual map of just how he would shoot."[13] As the footage continued to flow in, the memos slowed, then stopped.

Olivia de Havilland had no idea of the friction between the two, no problem with the closeups, and she debunked Walsh's reputation as a tough guy. "I loved working with Raoul. He seemed to understand perfectly the characters we were playing, and to understand, too, the 'actor' approach to them. It was a happy, harmonious set, a happy picture to make."[13] The screenwriters too found Walsh a good boss. Julius Epstein said he "was great. He was very businesslike. He didn't change a word on The Strawberry Blonde. Some writers complained about Walsh. My experience with him was very good."[10]

When Warner Bros. released Strawberry Blonde on February 21, 1941, "the studio knew it had a hit on its hands."[14] Walsh considered it his most successful picture to date, and from then on would call it his favorite film.[14]

Biff and Nicholas, lifelong pals; George Tobias received good notices as Nicholas

Critical reception

Contemporary critic Bosley Crowther praised Strawberry Blonde in The New York Times, calling it "lusty, affectionate, and altogether winning." Part of its "amiable, infectious quality", he wrote, came from its cast: "James Cagney, true to form, is excellent as the pugnacious and proud little guy who 'don't take nothing from nobody' cause that's the kind of hairpin he is. Olivia de Havilland is sweet and sympathetic as the girl he marries and Rita Hayworth makes a classic 'flirt' of the one who got away." Part of it also came from the screenplay by Casablanca writers Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein: they took "the little play, One Sunday Afternoon... and fashioned from it a gas-lit comedy, laced with sentimental romance, about a fellow who thinks he's been played for a chump, but, in the end, discovers that he's the winner." Crowther also liked the supporting performances of George Tobias and Jack Carson.[15]

Variety liked it as well: "Cagney and de Havilland provide topnotch performances that do much to keep up interest in the proceedings. Rita Hayworth is an eyeful as the title character, while Jack Carson is excellent as the politically ambitious antagonist of the dentist."[16]

More recently, prolific critic Leslie Halliwell called it a "pleasant period comedy drama" and singled out the three stars and cinematographer James Wong Howe for outstanding contributions.[17]

From the 1941 trailer:

Home video

Strawberry Blonde is available on both VHS and in a DVD edition through the Warner Archive Collection.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Hagen, Wagner, Tompkins "Movie Dubbers", http://www.barbaralea.com/Dubbers/dubberslist.html
  2. ↑ Moss, Marilyn Ann (2011). Raoul Walsh: The True Adventures of Hollywood's Legendary Director. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-3393-5. p. 198
  3. 1 2 Moss, p. 198
  4. ↑ Warren, Doug, and James Cagney (1986). Cagney: The Authorized Biography. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-90207-7. p. 101
  5. ↑ Warren, p. 124
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Moss, p. 200
  7. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie with John Walker, ed. (1994). Halliwell's Film Guide. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-273241-2. p. 894
  8. 1 2 3 4 Moss, p. 199
  9. ↑ McGilligan, Patrick (1986). Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05666-3. p. 180
  10. 1 2 3 McGilligan, p. 180
  11. ↑ Katz, Ephraim, Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolen (2005). The Film Encyclopedia. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-074214-3. p. 1284
  12. 1 2 3 Moss, p. 201
  13. 1 2 3 Moss, p. 202
  14. 1 2 Moss, p. 203
  15. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (1941). "James Cagney in a Nostalgic Comedy of the 1890s, 'Strawberry Blonde,' at the Strand." The New York Times, February 22, 1941
  16. ↑ Variety, February 12, 1941
  17. ↑ Halliwell, p. 1140
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