Mannequin (1938)

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Movie
Original title mannequin
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1938
length 95 minutes
Rod
Director Frank Borzage
script Lawrence Hazard
production Joseph L. Mankiewicz for MGM
music Edward Ward
camera George J. Folsey
cut Frederic Y. Smith
occupation

Mannequin is an American film starring Joan Crawford and Spencer Tracy directed by Frank Borzage .

action

Jessica "Jessie" Cassidy lives in poor conditions with her family in a tiny apartment in New York. Every evening the young woman has to look after her dying father after a strenuous job in a department store. Desperate to make a better life, Jessica eventually marries her good-for-nothing boyfriend, Eddie Miller. At their wedding celebration, the couple met millionaire and ship magnate John L. Hennessey, who bought them a bottle of champagne. John immediately feels an affection for Jessica. Eddie persuades Jessica to quit her job in the department store and instead work as a showgirl on Broadway. A few months later, during which Jessica is increasingly realizing what a spendthrift and womanizer her husband is, she meets John again. When he tries to seduce Jessica at a party, she slaps him. In the meantime, Jessica's domestic situation is deteriorating. Eddie is arrested for betting fraud and given notice of their apartment. Desperate Jessie turns to John, who lends her some money for essentials. Eddie, who is only out for his own gain, suggests Jessica get a sham divorce and then marry John for the money. This immoral offer finally opens the young woman's eyes and she leaves Eddie. A short time later she got a job as a mannequin and met John again on the occasion. Her relationship with Hennessy intensified over the course of the following months and the two eventually marry. They are spending a romantic honeymoon when the news of strikes among the shipyard workers quickly ends the idyll. Hennessy returns immediately to save his company. Barely out the front door, Eddie stands in the living room to blackmail Jessica. She is about to send Eddie out of the house when John comes back unexpectedly. Jessica tries to save the day by lying to John that she never loved him. When Eddie reveals, however, that John is now bankrupt and, so to speak, ended up in the gutter, Jessica has a change of heart. She moves her precious jewelry and John and they start a new life.

background

Joan Crawford had made her breakthrough as one of MGM's top female stars during the transition from silent films to talkies . However, her career had been in a permanent crisis since the mid-1930s. The studio used her too often in rather shallow roles and failed to develop Crawford's acting potential over the long term. After appearing in the lavishly produced historical film The Gorgeous Hussy in 1936 had proven to be a financial failure and the adaptation of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney had cost more money in the following year than it finally grossed in at the box office, the status of actress was as a star in serious danger. The studio managers therefore tried to win back the fans with a proven formula from the early days of Crawford's career. Mannequin is basically a Cinderella story that tells of the rise of an ambitious woman from a poor background to the top of society. Crawford had already played comparable roles with success several times, for example in Everything for Your Luck from 1931, I dance only for you from 1933, or Sadie McKee , who came out a year later.

Frank Borzage , who had signed a long-term contract with MGM in 1937, took over the direction. Mannequin stands in a row to his previous works such as Man's Castle from 1933 with Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young as homeless lovers or Living on Velvet , who explores the difficult relationship between a guilty pilot ( George Brent ) and an emotionally insecure woman ( Kay Francis ) described. At Borzage, the focus is on the question of how love can prove itself even under the most difficult conditions and what sacrifices people have to make in order to find lasting emotional strength. Similar to Man's Castle , Borzage depicts poverty and financial shortages in sometimes drastic images. However, poverty serves more as a background for the love story than it is a socially critical analysis of the economic situation. The film historian Hervé Dumont summed up the director's message as follows.

“[The films] depict nothing more than the emergence of an affection, the search for authenticity, an inner career. The poet of loving intimacy is born and his material has been found: a man and a woman, both seemingly hopeless loners, outsiders, even deserters, overcome their egocentric drives in order to enhance each other in the course of several life tests - whether war, disease or poverty . They are strengthened by their love for one another. Unrestricted, emphatically non-bourgeois love, which is at the same time the object and subject of Borzage's entire filmography and, depending on the story, transcends time, space, possibly death. "

At the same time, the film is also a parable about Joan Crawford's own rise from a poor background to a highly paid film star who received a weekly salary of $ 9,500. Like the heroine of the film, Crawford managed to get out of the misery of her youth first as a dancer and then to land a film contract. In an interview, the actress said about the role:

“I took one look at the Delancey Street set and knew I was home. I was Jessie again. "

Since the predominantly female fans of Crawford, who had a reputation for being one of the best dressed women in Hollywood, demanded constant costume changes from her on the screen, the producers made Jessica the eponymous mannequin. In this way, the Crawford character was able to be presented in constantly changing ensembles without too great a break in logic even during the time when the young woman had to live poorly and without her own savings.

Financial success was of particular importance to Crawford. At the beginning of the year, Crawford was, alongside stars like Marlene Dietrich , Kay Francis and Greta Garbo, selected by the Association of Independent Cinema Operators as one of the stars whose films are box office poison , i.e. box office poison . After Crawford's contract expired in mid-1938, her mannequin became a much-needed hit and she was able to negotiate a new five-year contract with an annual fee of $ 330,000. Joan Crawford made two other films with Borzage: Burning Flames of Passion and Miraculous Rescue . Mannequin had the working titles Three Rooms in Heaven , Class , Shop Girl and Saint or Sinner .

Collaboration with Spencer Tracy

Working with Spencer Tracy was far from easy for Crawford. After the two actors got along well and even spent their free time together, tensions arose during the filming. Tracy, who had big problems with alcohol, treated Crawford increasingly badly. Years later , the actress was relatively blunt to Roy Newquist in the book Conversations With Joan Crawford :

“I was flattered to work with Spence at first and we even had a lot of fun after work at the beginning, but in the end he turned out to be a real bastard. If he drank he was mean and he drank throughout the shoot. He would do funny things like stepping on my feet during the love scenes or eating garlic before the kissing scenes. Metro then wanted to use us in a film again, but I successfully asked them to spare me that. Unfortunately, I can't say nicer things about him. Perhaps he changed in the years that followed, but from what I've heard about his relationship with Kate, I doubt it. "

Another actress who had bad experiences with Tracy was Irene Dunne , who appeared with him in Battle in the Clouds in 1943 .

Theatrical release

At $ 595,000, it was a cheap production compared to the previous cost of a Joan Crawford film. The film grossed a respectable amount of US $ 1,066,000 in the United States, to which was added foreign income of US $ 568,000. The cumulative total profit of $ 1,634,000 was the previous cut that the actress' productions were able to achieve. The end result was a comparatively high profit of $ 475,000.

Awards

The film received a nomination in the category at the Academy Awards in 1939

criticism

Frank Nugent of the New York Times was not particularly impressed with the result.

“ Mannequin cemented Joan Crawford's reputation as the heroine of the female workforce. […] For a girl from the wrong end of town, however, the aura of Park Avenue surrounds her, not to mention her perfect pronunciation. She is also completely above the smell of sausages and sauerkraut [...] It would have been a better film if Mr. Tracy had played the honorable worker and Miss Crawford the plutocrat "

Howard Barnes found in the New York Herald Tribune :

“Joan Crawford is not quite happily cast in the role of the slum princess. She may still try very hard, she is just too chic for Hester Street and too much Miss Crawford for a girl who can make it up. "

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see essay on nzz.ch
  2. ↑ I took one look at those poor Delancey Street sets and knew I was back home; I was Jessie.
  3. ↑ At first I felt honored working with Spence, and we even whooped it up a little bit off the set, but he turned out to be a real bastard. When he drank he was mean, and he drank all through production. He'd do cute things like step on my toes when we were doing a love scene - after he chewed on some garlic. Metro tried to co-star us again, but I begged them to let me off, and they did. I'm sorry I can't say nicer things about him; maybe he improved later, but from the things I've heard about his relationship with Kate, I doubt it.
  4. ↑ "Mannequin" restores Miss Joan Crawford to her throne as queen of the working girls […] For a Hester Street alumnus, she has a Park Avenue way about her, not to mention perfect diction and a curious remoteness from the odor of frankfurters and sauerkraut. [...] We thought at times that the script writers had the roles reversed, that Mr. Tracy should have been the honest working boy, Miss Crawford the plutocrat.
  5. ^ Joan Crawford is not particularly happy in the role of the slum princess. Try as she may, she is too tony for Hester Street and too much Miss Crawford for the poor girl who made good.