Too Much, Too Soon

I have this pleasant fantasy of Errol Flynn not dying in 1959 at the premature age of 50, but living a decade or two on. He would be one of the prime beneficiaries of the nostalgia boom that swept the country in the 1960s and early 1970s and would be justly celebrated as the great screen presence – and actor – that he was.

Always critical of the action roles he was assigned at Warner Bros., Flynn would look at back at those films and, much like frequent co-star Olivia deHavilland, realize that “We made some pretty terrific movies there. I had no idea.”

I picture an avuncular Flynn, circa 1974 or 1975, as the latest American Film Institute Life Achievement Award winner. The film clips play to a rapt house and thunderous applause greets each clip. Former co-stars pay him homage, and the younger crowd bows in worshipful adoration. Even former boss and scourge Jack Warner pays respect to his former bad boy star, and he and Flynn have put the past behind them, enjoy the occasional social drink together and reminisce about their former battles. .

The sad thing is I know exactly what he would look like as he sits at the table enjoying the AFI honor. It’s because I recently watched “Too Much, Too Soon” (1958), one of Flynn’s last pictures, and Flynn, at 48 years of age, looks much, much older. Like a 70+-year-old man would look.

In the film, the story of actress Diana Barrymore (Dorothy Malone), Flynn plays Diana’s father, the legendary John Barrymore, and he’s first rate. When Barrymore dies about halfway through, the movie never recovers and slogs its way through another hour before mercifully wrapping up.
Errol Flynn and John Barrymore were great buddies and drinking companions, so you know Flynn took extra care to deliver a good performance. And deliver he does, but boy is it hard to watch, especially when you consider only 20 years have passed since his triumph in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938). Rather than two decades passing, Flynn’s appearance looks more like four or five decades have passed.

Much heavier and jowly, with a husky voice, there are times it looks like Flynn can barely finish a scene. Still, that magnetism is still there and can’t be denied. One can understand the adoration that Diana has for her father, who probably loved his daughter in his own way, but was too caught up in the whirlwind of his own life to give her the attention and love she desired. .

Diana Barrymore had a minor career as an actress. Her film credits are few and her starring roles were in a couple of Universal pictures I’ve never seen, “Eagle Squadron” (1942) with Robert Stack and “Between Us Girls” (1942) as the daughter of Kay Francis.

Unfortunately she suffered from the same demons as her father, and was drinking regularly to keep the pain away. The problem with the movie is she’s not that interesting a character.

Barrymore published her autobiography, “Too Much, Too Soon” in 1957, and the movie followed a year later. She did not live long to enjoy the book’s success as she died of a combined overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills in 1960. She was 38 years old. (I’ve also read she died as a result of third degree burns following a kitchen fire).

The always underrated Malone is excellent in this film, ably playing Diana as a shy little girl in awe of her famous father, to aspiring actress to the hellish spiral downward. It’s a tough and gusty performance, and I think it would be more remembered today if the film were better.

I’m sure the film is highly fictitious. There’s a scene where she and the cast and crew come out of a preview of “All Through the Night” (1942), the Bogart picture, and proclaim it an utter disaster, which will require lots of re-shooting and the eventual editing out of all of Diana Barrymore’s scenes. I’ve never heard that about that film, and can’t conceive that the well-oiled Warner Bros. machinery ever allowed the so-called disaster to be previewed like that.

Diana’s taste in men didn’t work out too well either. First husband was the much older Bramwell Fletcher, who is probably best remembered today for his role in “The Mummy” (1932), and his insane screams when he first sees the walking corpse of Im-ho-tep. In “Too Much, Too Soon” this role of the older matinee idol actor has been re-named Vincent Bryant (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.)

Second husband was a tennis player named John Howard, played in the movie by a spectacularly oily Ray Danton. I don’t know what Howard was like in real life, but here he’s portrayed as the ultimate Hollywood leech. (In reality, Howard was convicted of later participating in white slavery!)

A third husband was Robert Wilcox, played here by Edward Kemmer. According to the Wikipedia entry on Diana Barrymore, “Diana might have found Wilcox to be the love of her life, but he nearly beat her to death in one of his assaults.” Boy, that name sounded familiar. Didn’t Robert Wilcox star in a Republic serial? I looked him up and sure enough, Robert Wilcox played the hero Copperhead in the great Republic serial “Mysterious Doctor Satan.” (1940). The Copperhead a wife beater? Very disheartening and I don’t know if I will be ever to enjoy that serial like I have in the past. I always try to separate the person from the actor, but wife beating is very tough to forgive.

The film was directed by Art Napoleon, and it’s only of three films he directed. It’s not very well directed, overall. The 121-minute running time really drags, but there are individual sequences that are very well done.

Early in the film, the young Diana, so happy to be with her father on a fishing trip, talks and talks and talks the whole time, and we can see John trying so hard not to tell her to be quiet. They’re sitting on the deck at night when another boat approaches. We never see who is on the boat, just the boat’s outline through the fog. It’s like a ghost ship, a metaphor for the eternal wanderlust in John Barrymore’s heart. We hear voices from the boat. They’re social acquaintances of John, and they invite him to come to Rio with them for additional festivities. Barrymore looks wistfully at his daughter before swimming away from his boat to join the party, waving goodbye to Diana.

There’s also a painful scene were a drunken Diana performs an impromptu striptease to a bored and jaded audience.

Helping the film enormously is the score by Ernest Gold, with a highly dramatic piano-based theme showcased throughout. Flynn was remarkably lucky with his musical accompaniment throughout his career, and always received good musical support.

There was talk of a possible Supporting Actor nomination for Flynn for “The Sun Also Rises” (1957) but it didn’t come to pass. A Supporting Actor nom would have been appropriate for “Too Much, Too Soon” as well. He’s that good in it.

You can have a good film with bad things in it, and a bad film with good things in it. “Too Much, Too Soon” has two very good performances in a very mediocre film.

Marie Antoinette (1938)

From Rambo to Norma Shearer. You never know what you’re going to find on the Corner.

“Marie Antoinette” (1938) is considered by many to be one of the most sumptuous mega productions of Hollywood’s Golden Age. And it is. It’s also long and meandering, but wonderfully acted and boasts one scene that is truly heart wrenching.

Despite M-G-Ms’ abundance of female stars in the 1930s (Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, etc.) Norma Shearer was the queen of the M-G-M lot. But she was off the nation’s theater screens for two years following the death of her husband, M-G-M production head Irving Thalberg in 1936. Thalberg had started production on the film before his premature death, and M-G-M studio head Louis B. Mayer halted pre-production on the film until she was ready to step before the cameras again. And she was ready two years later.

True to its subject, “Marie Antoinette” is a stunning production, with the Court of Versailles captured in all its magnificence and decadence. Shearer is most convincing as the young Hapsburg princess catapulted into marriage with the future king of France, Louis XV (Robert Morley, in his film debut). The Hays Office watched carefully that good taste was not overstepped in detailing the non-consummation of their married relationship. Through carefully scripted dialogue, however, the audience fully understands what is happening. They also understood why the married Marie would begin an affair with a handsome visitor from the Swedish court, Axel de Fersen (Tyrone Power).

Eventually Louis XIV dies (the gloriously lecherous John Barrymore, not in the film nearly as much as we’d like), and Louis XV ascends to the throne. With his father’s shadow now dissipated, Louis XV is now ready to come into his own. He fathers a son and a daughter, the Swedish count is away in America and he and Marie settle into a happy relationship. Things may be happy in the palace, but not the rest of France. The peasants are starving, and revolution is afoot.

The recent DVD release of the film showcases “Marie Antoinette” in a way not seen since its 1938 engagement. The DVD boasts an overture, intermission and exit music, courtesy of M-G-M staff composer Herbert Stothart. With the extra music the film runs a healthy 157 minutes. It could use a little judicious cutting, mainly in the pre-revolution scenes in the first half.

This was the big, prestigious production of 1938, so much so that Twentieth Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck loaned their biggest male star, Tyrone Power, to appear alongside Shearer. Upon seeing the completed film, he immediately regretted his decision, and never loaned Power out again. In retrospect, it’s hard to see why. After all Power shares top billing with Shearer above the title, and it didn’t hurt Power to be in one of the top films of the year. Shearer’s return to the screen after two years meant the film enjoyed an unusually high level of interest and publicity. He’s given plenty of footage, and wears his costumes beautifully. Certainly the role is no worse than what Fox was giving him. His romantic scenes with Shearer were sure to please his many female admirers, especially a beautifully shot scene on a moonlit balcony.

Perhaps Zanuck was incensed that his top star was not the center of attention, but subservient to the top female star of another studio. It’s too bad he felt that way, since it lost Power other loan out roles, where he would have been able to show his acting chops in ways he was never allowed to at Fox. For instance, Warner Bros. wanted Power to play the idealistic Parris Mitchell in “King’s Row” (1941) but Zanuck said no. Too bad, he would have been perfect in the role and it would have made that magnificent film even better. (Many people feel that the eventual Parris Mitchell, Robert Cummings, is the weak link of “King’s Row”).

What’s odd is how much the film favors the Shearer-Power romance. A natural point for the intermission occurs when it is announced Louis XV will be King of France and Marie Antoinette Queen of France. The scene ends with music swelling and a radiant close-up of Shearer. In fact, I thought it was intermission time (i.e. bathroom break) and started to get up. But no, the film continues and the intermission comes after the farewell scene between Marie and Axel. It’s a beautifully played (and photographed) scene, and the camera tracks Power as he leaves her, walking forward while she recedes in the background. It’s obvious the makers felt the love story was the more important element of the film, and not Marie becoming Queen of France. You would think Zanuck would be happy about the film’s focus.

The film’s second half is much livelier, as revolution threatens the French kingdom. Peasants are starving, yet Marie is spending a million plus francs on a new necklace. (She really hasn’t, though, being part of a scheme to embarrass the French court. She needed Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan to get that necklace back.)

One can’t say enough good things about Robert Morley’s performance as Louis. It’s obvious the poor guy doesn’t want to be king, and is thrust into a role he can barely comprehend. Things get worse when revolution threatens the land and he tries to rally his soldiers. He can barely get the words out and you feel his shame and humiliation as the troops laugh at him.

Curiously though the revolution seems to embolden him. In the film’s best scene, he enjoys a last dinner with his wife and children. The four dine together on onion soup in a prison cell. Louis knows he’s going to the guillotine the next morning but doesn’t let on to his children, putting up a brave front and even offering to fix his son’s broken toy. It’s a beautifully played scene and probably the best scene in the film.

Shearer is good too in her final scenes. She allows herself to be aged and dirtied up as she is released in prison and led to her execution. No careful lighting or make up for her, she looks likes been through the wringer as she takes her final steps.

A few years ago, Kirsten Dunst essayed the role of Marie Antoinette. It wasn’t a bad movie, and I didn’t even mind the contemporary songs on the soundtrack. But it’s pretty dull; “dramatically inert” I remember telling a friend. The 1938 version also has its flaws, but its virtues eventually outweigh them.

Rating for “Marie Antoinette”: Three stars.