Great Movie Comedians: From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen (The Leonard Maltin Collection) by Leonard Maltin

Great Movie Comedians: From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen (The Leonard Maltin Collection) by Leonard Maltin

Author:Leonard Maltin [Maltin, Leonard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-09-14T22:00:00+00:00


Joel McCrea restrains Will from scrapping with Jason Robards, Sr., in Lightnin'.

Myrna Loy works her charms on a laconic Rogers in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Rochelle Hudson sides with Rogers against a small-town snoop in Doctor Bull.

Will and Stepin Fetchit in Judge Priest.

In many of his films, Rogers plays an iconoclast, wiser than the so-called leaders in the town (usually played by Berton Churchill and/or Charles Middleton) but too honest to be accepted by them. This is the theme of two films that probably rate as his best, Dr. Bull and Judge Priest, both directed by John Ford. Americana at its finest, in Dr. Bull Rogers is cast as a small-town doctor whose "antiquated" methods make him suspect to the medical community and whose "radical" ideas, such as inoculation, win him disfavor among the townspeople. In Judge Priest his basic fairness and refusal to be swayed by rumors and overblown rhetoric (by Senator Berton Churchill) put him in an uncomfortable position at election time.

In these films, filled with rural stereotypes (which inevitably have their basis in reality), Rogers portrays not just a man but an ideal. He is everything we aspire to be—kind, fair, temperate, witty, above all human—and although he encounters opposition throughout the conflict at hand, he always emerges victorious. It is easy to see why this characterization was so popular with audiences; it is one of the reasons that Rogers' films are still so compelling.

Although many of his films fit into a formula pattern, they also serve to display Rogers' versatility. He obviously loved to sing and did so in a surprisingly high-pitched tenor voice. Incidental songs were interspersed throughout his films, most notably in Doubting Thomas, in which he tries to show up his stagestruck wife by "going Hollywood" himself and imitating Bing Crosby, and in one of Judge Priest's most enchanting scenes, in which he exchanges impromptu lyrics with Hattie McDaniel.

Another film, In Old Kentucky, even gives him an opportunity to dance. The film features the incomparable Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and in one scene Will is thrown into jail. Robinson comes to visit him and takes his place in the cell while Will, in blackface, tries to escape. On his way out, the sheriff asks him to dance, and forced to keep up the masquerade, he does an elaborate and amazingly good tap routine. Apparently, Will kept his eyes open while working in the Ziegfeld Follies.

Co-workers adored Will Rogers as much as the public. Because he shunned retakes, his films were often completed under schedule; every time, Will would pay whatever salary was due the crew for the time they would have worked. Because he took his work so casually, he was always trying to boost his fellow players' stock, urging directors to "give" scenes to other actors or deliberately underplaying to make someone else look good.

He worked especially fast in 1935 to complete three pictures back to back in order to take an extended vacation. When the last one was completed, he



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