I ran into this 1935 Warner Brothers title on YouTube and had my curiosity aroused by Warren William’s connection.  Plus now that I’m regularly reviewing non-WW films at another site of mine, Immortal Ephemera, I knew that 85 minutes of Stella Parish was good for not just one, but two separate posts in two places.  Here’s the I Found Stella Parish review on Immortal Ephemera.

Warner Brothers originally intended for Warren William to play the role of Stephan in I Found Stella Parish, but he refused and was replaced by Paul Lukas.  William seems to have worked out an amiable agreement with Warner Brothers and specifically Jack Warner whereby he was placed on suspension without pay for the length of Lukas’ use on the picture.  The suspension appears to have run from August 19 through September 19, 1935.

Warner Brothers had just exercised a six picture option on William’s contract May 13 of the same year with the new option to start as of June 6.  On July 19 The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) went into production which was completed on August 15.

Warner’s files show multiple communications stating William was to report to Stella Parish director Mervyn LeRoy on August 19, though his actual replies, if any, are not on file.  A letter dated August 17, 1935 from Warner legal executive R.J. Obringer to William’s agent, Mike Levee, summarizes the suspension settlement referring to William’s “refusal to to the part of ‘Stephen’” and stating that William himself had “expressed his opinion as the set up being agreeable to him in the event that there was no other alternative.”  Obringer also notes that J.L. (Jack Warner) feels he’s doing William a favor with the arrangement.

So why did Warren William refuse the part?  Speculation time.

1. As filmed the part of Stephen is very small with Paul Lukas appearing opposite Kay Francis and Ian Hunter throughout the first fifteen minutes of the film only to disappear until the final ten minutes.

2. Living on Velvet (1935) was just released in March and in it Warren William’s character is in love with the Kay Francis character, introduces George Brent to her and then steps aside as both Francis’ love interest and for most of the picture leaving Francis and Brent the bulk of the screen time. 

In I Found Stella Parish the Stephen character is in love with Kay Francis and then left behind as Ian Hunter’s character pursues her across the Atlantic and takes over as love interest leaving Francis and Brent the bulk of the screen time. 

It’s the same formula.

3. Besides Living on Velvet, William also has appeared with Francis in Dr. Monica (1934) by this point.  These, and Stella Parish, are obviously vehicles entirely geared towards Kay Francis and not the leading men.

4. Warren William would eventually escape his Warner Brother’s contract early leaving the company on June 22, 1936 after completion of Stage Struck (1936).  A letter from agent Levee to Jack Warner dated April 24th of that year lays out William’s case for early termination referring to his contract started June 1933 and stating that “for the last two years, the type of stuff Warren has been requested to do is really short of disastrous.”

Forget about the films after Stella Parish, let’s run down those done before: Lucky Legs (1935); Don’t Bet on Blondes (1935); The Case of the Curious Bride (1935); Living on Velvet (1935); and The Secret Bride (1934).  Just prior to that run William had been loaned out to Universal for Imitation of Life (1934) and Paramount for Cleopatra (1934), completing the first Perry Mason film, The Case of the Howling Dog (1934) on his home lot in between.  Where were the quality pictures?  Universal and Paramount. 

The enforcement of the production code effectively killed the popular caddish characters Warren William mastered between 1932-1934 and appears to have led him to being typed two ways: 1) Husband to strong leading ladies in melodramas built around the actress and not Warren and certainly bolstered by the success of Imitation of Life on loan out; 2) Detective mysteries. 

The 1936 Obringer letter to Warner opines that Warren William could have easily been as popular as William Powell by that time if handled correctly, but Warner’s dropped the ball and that time is now gone.  Perhaps Warren’s refusal to take part in I Found Stella Parish was an early and ultimately unsuccessful play by the actor and his agent to prevent that from happening.

Upon his return from suspension Warren William was cast in Meet the Duchess which was released under the title The Widow from Monte Carlo (1935).  He completed that 6 picture option in underwhelming fashion following Widow with Times Square Playboy (1936), the unfairly maligned Satan Met a Lady (1936), his final Perry Mason appearance in The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936), and finally Stage Struck (1936).

PS: I’m still looking for a copy of The Widow from Monte Carlo on DVD or DVD-R, if you have one please feel free to email.

Or as you probably know it “the one where Errol Flynn plays a corpse.” That always kind of bugs me because while he’s not in it for very long and doesn’t actually say anything, Flynn is live and in action during the last few minutes of Curious Bride in a flashback scene. So okay, it’s a total bit part, but he is more than a corpse. Why so little Flynn? Well, it’s just his fourth film and first for Warner’s filmed in the U.S. He’d have a little more to do in Warren William’s next film, Don’t Bet on Blondes (1935) before being awarded the lead in Captain Blood (1935)* and shooting to instant stardom. Beyond Flynn himself his character, Gregory Moxley, is actually at the center of the entire case.

*Interesting sidenote regarding Captain Blood. In a letter from Warren William to Warner Brothers’ legal executive Roy Obringer dated January 8, 1935, William, while arguing about the size of his billing in an ad for Living on Velvet (1935), gripes of the “irreparable damage” the studio has done to him by, among other offenses, “reassigning other pictures that have heretofore been publicly announced as vehicles intended for me. I make particular reference to Rafael Sabatini’s “CAPTAIN BLOOD” (Warner Bros. Archives, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California). Backing this up is an item in the June 24, 1934 edition of the Charleston Gazette of West Virginia noting William is slated to play the title role in Captain Blood with George Brent and Ricardo Cortez in support (26).

Errol Flynn as Moxley

As for Perry Mason himself post-Thin Man influence takes over and injects much more comedy throughout this film than the initial entry in the series, The Case of the Howling Dog (1934). But that’s not to say that Mason and Curious Bride are a total Thin Man rip-off. The Mason of Curious Bride actually allows us our first glimpse of Warren William really getting comfortable in the role and giving us a prototype for the personality he’s to play not only in his next two Mason outings but later as The Lone Wolf as well. While Curious Bride isn’t quite as off the wall as The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) will be just a few months later, it’s apparent from the moment Warren William appears, crab shopping with his cronies on a street corner, that Curious Bride is intended as far lighter fare than the more hard-boiled Howling Dog.

Lightening Mason up this time around is his assistant Spudsy Drake, Allen Jenkins playing about 180 degrees from his Sergeant Holcomb of the previous movie, as well as coroner Wilbur Strong played by Olin Howland. Howland reprises this role in 1936′s The Case of the Velvet Claws but in between he plays the very similar Dr. Croker in Curious Bride’s immediate follow-up, The Case of the Lucky Legs. Also on the scene is Claire Dodd as the best of the Della Street’s despite not having much to do in Curious Bride. Dodd also returns as Della in Velvet Claws, but Genevieve Tobin will take over for Lucky Legs. Need a scorecard yet? Anyway it’s the team of Jenkins, Howland, Dodd and Thomas E. Jackson as Inquirer reporter Toots Howard who help lighten the mood around Mason in this entry, and Warren William rolls with it in a performance so comfortable you can’t help but to think this is the performer in his own skin.

Perry and Spudsy tip their caps to Telegraph Operator Mary Treen

There’s also a decided Thin Man influence in the minor characters of Curious Bride, especially in escargot loving convict Fibo (pronounced Fee-bo) Morgan (Paul Hurst), his actress sister Florabelle (Mayo Methot pre-Bogart marriage), and as the film draws towards its conclusion Oscar Pender (Warren Hymer), a character who has to do some slick talking to explain his presence at the murder scene. These people seem like they left Nick and Nora’s Christmas party early in order to get out to Frisco and be within Perry Mason’s reach!

Warren Hymer as Pender, his face showing the signs of Spudsys blackjack

Of course the final scene of Curious Bride practically mimics the finale of the original Thin Man with the only difference being the suspects are gathered on their feet for cocktails rather than around a table for a meal. Mason’s techniques in fingering the murderer are exactly the same as Nick Charles’ though: a story, some questions, several accusations and eventually the guilty party cracks.

The mystery at the center of all this fun starts to unfold inside an upscale restaurant where William’s Perry Mason has commandeered the kitchen, donning apron and chef’s hat, to cook his crab legs before an audience of adoring employees. Mason ignores the all too common request of a woman calling upon him, preferring to concentrate on his cooking, until Margaret Lindsay beams at him and catches his attention. Lindsay is Rhoda, an old flame, who tells Perry a story about her friend, dubbed the curious bride by Perry, who has hopes of getting married again but first has to void a current marriage. Perry notes Rhoda twisting her wedding ring and basically winks at the story of her friend. When the maitre d’ has troubles fulfilling Perry’s wine request, Mason is forced to excuse himself to choose a proper vintage for himself, meanwhile Rhoda bolts and is tailed outside by Donald Woods who we soon discover is playing her husband, Carl Montaine.

Warren William in his cooking gear

In brief, Rhoda had previously been married to Moxley (Flynn) and married Montaine after Moxley’s death. But she now believes that Moxley is alive and in the interim she’s become seriously involved with Dr. Claude Millbeck (Phillip Reed). If Moxley can be found then that wipes out the marriage to Montaine leaving her free to wed Millbeck. When Mason pays a visit to his coroner pal, Wilbur Strong, to have a peek at Moxley’s exhumed body they all have a chuckle when it’s revealed a cigar store Indian has been buried in Moxley’s place.

Olin Howland as coroner Wilbur Strong

With Mason’s task simplified to just producing Moxley it’s no surprise that when it does find him it’s dead with a sheet pulled over him in a room full of cops headed by Barton MacLane’s cranky Chief Detective Joe Lucas (MacLane returns as a different Dectective in Lucky Legs). Now Rhoda has more than marital woes on her hands, she’s become the chief suspect in the Moxley murder case and Mason sets to work with Spudsy to clear her.

Perry talks to Rhoda with the shadows of the bars in the background

There are no weak performances in The Case of the Curious Bride, in fact my only complaint with the casting is that we could have used more of Claire Dodd as Della Street. Lindsay has a fair amount of screen time as Rhoda Montaine and does a fine job at coloring her character just gray enough to leave us wondering, all the while feeling sympathetic towards her just in case she really is innocent! Allen Jenkins is hilarious as Spudsy and steals several scenes, though perhaps my favorite is one he shares sitting on a stoop with Warren William where the two men are overcome by the tear gas Spudsy has been carrying as they say their farewells for the evening.

Spudsy and Perry break down at their farewell

Also featured in the cast are Phillip Reed, somewhat invisible as Doctor Millbeck, Rhoda’s latest prospective husband; Winifred Shaw as Pender’s (Hymer) singing sister; Charles Richman, effectively pompous as Montaine’s (Woods) father who hopes to see daughter-in-law Rhoda found guilty; Robert Gleckler and James Donlan as Barton MacLane’s underlings, Detectives Byrd and Fritz, both of whom have their moments of comedy relief; and Henry Kolker as heavy handed District Attorney Stacey who’ll go as far as legally possible to finally hand defeat to Perry Mason.

Michael Curtiz keeps Curious Bride’s overall pace as snappy as its dialogue dissolving each scene through a literal fog which can seem abrupt at times but certainly does as intended in keeping things moving briskly. Except when Perry and his gang are together most of Curious Bride is set inside tight quarters, often with Perry (or Spudsy) trapping somebody under their questioning, one exception being the airport scene which involves a lot of moving parts but at the same time does see Perry lock himself inside a phone booth with Rhoda where he can dictate his orders and keep her away from the eyes of the police.

Claire Dodd as Della Street

The Case of the Curious Bride began production January 28, 1935 and was released as a Clue Club Picture by First National Pictures through Warner Brothers on April 8, 1935. In an April 5 review the New York Times says of The Case of the Curious Bride that “the pace is swift, the solution well hidden, the comedy good and—but isn’t that enough?” I have to agree.

I have to apologize, I guess it was in my excitement to post this, but it’s not The Match King airing Tuesday morning, it’s The Mind Reader. Sorry for any confusion.

Sorry, this really should have been in my last post which was filled with news and notes, but as The Match King rightfully appears to be one of the most requested Warren William films in the comments here I absolutely had to post an alert for you — it airs this Tuesday morning, March 16, 2010 at 8:45 am EST on Turner Classic Movies.

I hope the notice isn’t too late!  I’d mentioned in that last post that my Now Playing subscription had lapsed, so I only noticed this last night when I was scrolling through the week’s schedule with my TV remote choosing which movies I wanted to record.  The Match King made me snap straight up in my seat!

There’s actually a lot of WW airing on TCM this month.  I’d already mentioned his showing up in a pair of films as part of the Ginger Rogers Star of the Month schedule, but he’s also going to show up on George Brent’s birthday as well.  Here’s all the Warren William that TCM is airing in the coming months (all times EST):

• Monday, March 15 at 2:45 pm Living on Velvet (1935) starring Kay Francis, George Brent, Warren William
• Tuesday, March 16 at 8:45 am The Mind Reader (1933) starring Warren William, Constance Cummings, Allen Jenkins
• Wednesday, March 17 at 9:45 pm Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) starring Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon
• Sunday, March 21 at 12:00 pm The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William
• Thursday, March 25 at 7:00 am Upper World (1934) starring Warren William, Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers

I’m seeing nothing featuring Warren William on either the April or May 2010 TCM schedules, but 5 for March isn’t too bad!

Enjoy, and again, hope I caught you in time!

Related: Some Dental Work from The Mind Reader.

The past few days I came upon a few mentions of Warren William on other blogs and thought I’d post the links here to tide you over until I get my own next post up.

Back at the end of January Rick29 of the Classic Film and TV Cafe posted a review of The Dragon Murder Case (1934).

On Feburary 23, Mark of Where Danger Lives posted a review of Fear (1946)

Then on February 28 Stacia of She Blogged By Night covered The Dark Horse (1932) as part of her Bette Davis Project.

Finally I was very happy to come upon Livius of clydefro.com’s post from today imagining Ten Warner Box Sets That Should Have Been. Our boy is front and center on the page as the dream box set of The Mouthpiece, Skyscraper Souls, The Match King, Employees’ Entrance, and The Mind Reader is imagined for a Forbidden Hollywood Set #4 … if only!

As for over here I hope to cover The Case of the Curious Bride (1935) very soon and am also working on a special somewhat biographical post.

I let my Now Playing Guide subscription lapse, but while I was putting together a Ginger Rogers Star of the Month schedule on Immortal Ephemera I did spot a couple of Warren William programming alerts as part of the Ginger schedule: Gold Diggers of 1933 airs at 9:45 pm EST on Wednesday, March 17 and Upperworld is on at 7:00 am EST, Thursday, March 25. Hopefully my Now Playing subscription picks up again in April so I can be more dutiful with my alerts going forward!

Speaking of TCM did you catch the documentary The Brothers Warner the other night? Right before it aired TCM played one of it’s Breakdowns blooper reels and WW showed up 3 times.

Finally, I picked up the Arcade Card shown below on eBay a couple of months ago. It measures 3 X 5.5 and is printed on very thick cardboard. It’s the first time I’ve seen this particular type card and nobody was going to outbid me on it … thankfully there wasn’t any, I got a real steal!

That’s it for now, hope you those posts listed above, they’re all excellent!