Thank You For Your Support: Great Supporting Players from Hollywood's Golden Age

John Qualen (right) in Grapes of Wrath

All hail the screenwriter without whom there would be no story to film. All hail the producers who assemble and lead all the people necessary to create the film. All hail the director whose vision and leadership and coaxing is the crucial component in any picture. All hail the leading actors and actresses who embody the characters and make us laugh or cry or think. While we are in the midst of all these hosannahs let us not forget the many supporting players who add color, steal scenes and provide the foils, villains, comic relief and extra depth a picture needs. 

It seems to me that the heyday of the supporting player in Hollywood was in what has been billed as Hollywood’s Golden Age (the 1930's through '50s). There was a group of stock players and characters actors who were forever showing up in films, in roles both small and significant. Our familiarity with them added to the pleasure of seeing them show up in our favorite films. Among the most notable were Grant Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, Jane Darwell, Una O’Connor, Eric Blore, Joan Blondell, Eugene Pallette, Charles Coburn, Beulah Bondi, Una Merkel (two Unas!), Franklin Pangborn, Guy Kibbee, James Gleason, Billie Burke, Gladys George and Spring Byington. But the most prominent for my money — what little there is of it — are the four gentleman listed below.

Pat Flaherty, left.

Pat Flaherty. It’s very likely that readers (both of us) don’t recognize this name. I barely do myself and I’m writing about him. Mr. Flaherty had an amazing 207 credits from 1934 to 1955. Many of the parts were so small that you dare not wink for fear of missing him. Pat was with the U.S. army during the Pancho Villa Expedition and was a fighter pilot during the First World War. He later played both professional football for the Chicago Bears and professional baseball for the New York Giants. In the early thirties he moved to Hollywood where he worked as a producer and technical advisor and later as a supporting actor. Pat played tough guys, construction workers, fighters, cops. I always associate him with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre where he sets Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt straight about the crooked boss they’ve been had by. Here are a list of some of the more prominent films he popped up in.

Twentieth Century

The Thin Man

Modern Times

My Man Godfrey

A Day at the Races

His Girl Friday

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Dictator

Meet John Doe

Ball of Fire

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Key Largo

The Asphalt Jungle

From 1931 and the pre-code era through 1974 and the birth of cable TV John Qualen had 222 acting credits. Born in Canada of Norwegian ancestry, John often played Scandanavians. Mr. Qualen was a student at the university of Toronto when he left school to join an acting troupe. He eventually reached New York where he got a part in a Broadway Production of Street Scenes. He reprised the role in the film version two years later. John had notable roles in three John Ford films, The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home and The Searchers. He also had a key role in Casablanca as Berger, Victor Lazlo’s first underground contact. He was also the prisoner scheduled of execution in His Girl Friday. Here are all of his appearances in noted films. 

Counsellor at Law

Our Daily Bread

Nothing Sacred

His Girl Friday

The Grapes of Wrath

The Long Voyage Home

The Devil and Daniel Webster

Casablanca

The Searchers

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Ward Bond with John Wayne in the Searchers

Ward Bond would be familiar to anyone who’s a fan of film from the thirties through the fifties and especially devotees of John Ford. However he may be best known as Bert the cop in It’s a Wonderful Life. He totaled a staggering 278 credits starting in 1928 and culminating with a regular gig on the TV show, Wagon Train, ending with his death in 1960. Bond was born in the wonderfully named town of Benkelman, Nebraska. Bond was a football teammate and good friend of John Wayne at the University of Southern California. It was there that they and their entire team were hired to appear in a Ford film, Salute. Bond and Wayne and befriended the director and were thereafter regulars in his movies. While Bond had many short appearances he had meaty roles in Young Mr. Lincoln, The Maltese Falcon, the aforementioned It’s a Wonderful Life and notably in The Searchers. Here are his most noteworthy films.

The Big Trail

Heroes For Sale

Wild Boys of the Road

It Happened One Night

The Informer

Topper

Bringing Up Baby

Confessions of a Nazi Spy

Young Mr. Lincoln

The Grapes of Wrath

The Long Voyage Home

The Maltese Falcon

My Darling Clementine

It’s A Wonderful Life

Fort Apache

Mister Roberts

The Searchers

Starting in 1927 William Demarest had 165 credits the last in 1978. Besides his extensive TV work which included 215 appearances on My Three Sons, Bill was a familiar face on the silver screen. He’s most recognizable for being a regular for Preston Sturges in the early 1940s, notably his scene-stealing performance in The Lady Eve (“positively the same dame”) and his hilarious role as Constable Kockenlocker in Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. Demarest came to movies as a two-decade veteran of vaudeville. Demarest, who served in the army during World War I, lived to the ripe old age of 91. Here are his best films.

Easy Living

The Great Man Votes

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

All Through the Night

The Devil and Miss Jones

Christmas in July

The Great McGinty

The Lady Eve

Sullivan’s Travels

The Palm Beach Story

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

Hail the Conquering Hero

James Gleason in Meet John Doe

Here are my ten favorite supporting actor performances from Hollywood’s Golden Age:

James Gleason in Meet John Doe

William Demarest in Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

Franklin Pangborn in Hail the Conquering Hero

Edward Everett Horton in Holiday

Roland Young in Philadelphia Story

Thomas Mitchell in Stagecoach

Robert Benchley in Foreign Correspondent

John Qualen in The Long Voyage Home

Ward Bond in The Searchers

S.Z Sakal in Christmas in Connecticut

Here are my ten favorite supporting actress performances from the same period:

 

Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story

Virginia Weidler in The Philadelphia Story

Gail Patrick in My Man Godfrey

Margaret Dumont in Duck Soup

Jane Darwell in Grapes of Wrath

Aline McMahon in Heroes for Sale

Joan Blondell Gold Diggers of 1933

May Robson in Bringing Up Baby

Linda Darnell in My Darling Clementine

Helen Broderick in Top Hat

Yay! Another Edition of Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

Saturday Night

Saturday Night (Reitman). They got it right. What a challenge to make a  film whose cast of characters includes so many well-known people from entertainment (Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Billy Crystal to name a few). Looking like who you’re playing is nice but acting like them is crucial and the cast here comes through. Jason Reitman’s direction is exemplary. This story of the ninety minutes leading up to the first episode of Saturday Night Live moves briskly with nary a dull moment. It’s funny, interesting and entertaining. One of those rare films that’s better than you hoped. 

A Special Day (1977) Scola. A special movie. Marcello Mastroianni is transcendent opposite Sophia Loren as Gabriel, a gay man in 1938 Fascist Italy who’s about to be sent to an island reserved for “subversives.” The day in question is when Adolph Hitler visited Rome and the whole city turned out to fete him and Mussolini. Gabrielle is befriended by a neighbor (Sophia Loren)  a beleaguered housewife who keeps a scrapbook about her beloved fascists. The pair have moments that are awkward, funny, angry and touching. Their day together forms the story and it is compelling from start to finish. This was my third viewing of A Special Day and it get’s better each time.

JFK (1991) Stone. New to the Kennedy Assassination? Watching Oliver Stone’s terrific film is an excellent start. No it’s not a documentary and shouldn’t be taken as pure fact. But it does pose questions aplenty about the who, how and most importantly the why of Kennedy’s murder. Stone’s direction, the editing and the cast are all first class. Kevin Costner plays Jim Garrison the New Orleands D.A. who led the only investigation into the Kennedy assassination that brought anyone to trial, Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones in a brilliant performance) for complicity in the assassination. Garrison fails to make a case against Shaw but he convinces many that Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy and not by a lone gunman. JFK not only raises questions but it’s also bravura cinema. 

Reality Bites (1994) Stiller. So does this film. For thirty blissful years I’d been spared watching this… I want to say, movie but is that what it was? By any name it was terrible. There had to have been the proverbial script problems from day one that were never resolved. What a waste of Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller (in his directorial debut and how he ever got another gig after this is beyond me). The characters were unlikable, the dialogue phony baloney and…..never mind. I’d prefer to forget it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Spielberg. Always great fun and it raises the question: why can’t they make action/adventure films like this anymore? Story and character reign supreme, not CGI, not over the top action. Classic good vs. evil. Harrison Ford is excellent as Indiana and the cast of Nazi bad guys is perfect. The action is veritably non-stop but never excessive. Raiders inspired numerous sequels, the third of which was just as good, if not better, than the original, the rest we could have done without. Raiders of the Lost Ark never gets old.

Mr. And Mrs. Smith (1941) Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock’s one foray into screwball comedy was a smashing success. Of course, it’s hard to go wrong when your film co-stars Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery but the the picture benefits from the great director’s framing and camera movement. The picture has a silly premise about a marriage not being legal or maybe it is but it doesn’t matter. In any event the wife hooks up (production code style) with hubby’s best friend/law partner. Husband wants the missus back and goes to hilarious lengths to that end. It’s a sure cure for depression.

Mermaids (1990) Benjamin. The missus and I enjoyed this film three decades ago when it was new. Neither of us had seen it since. We had doubts that it would hold up lo these many years later. What a pleasant surprise. Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci (then nine years old) along with Bob Hoskins make an entertaining and endearing cast. Cher plays a single mother forever on the move but maybe she finds true love in a small New England town. Meanwhile Winona as the teen daughter is asserting herself and falling in love. The movie’s flaw is her love interest, a totally uninteresting actor who should have looked like Josh Hartnett but more resembled Josh Gad.

The Fifteen Films that Just Missed My Top 100

Hail the Conquering Hero number 101

The premise here is simple. What are my favorite all-time films that did not quite make my list of top 100 motion pictures of all time? I suppose another way of looking at is: what are my 101st through 115th favorite movies? (I was going to pick a top ten but the best I could do was narrow it down to fifteen.)

I thought it worth singling out some films considering how many I have in the “I also love these movies” category that follows my top 100. Astute readers (I’m looking at you Conroy G. Buttlecluck of Winston-Salem, North Carolina) will note that several of these pictures used to be among my top 100 but were pushed out by newcomers. My top 100 is a fluid list with films moving in, out, up and down as I watch them again and re-evaluate or find new ones.

I end this short post with a disclaimer: My top 100 merely reflects my personal favorites and I don’t pretend that any movie is better than any other.

So here’s my next fifteen and yes, they are in order.

1. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) Sturges

2. Mirror (1975) Tarkovsky

3. The Wild Bunch (1969) Peckinpah

4. Closely Watched Trains (1966) Menzel

5. The Long Voyage Home (1940) Ford

6. Viridana (1961) Buñuel

7. The Match Factory Girl (1990) Kaurismäki

8. Groundhog Day (1993) Ramis

9. Bonnie & Clyde (1967) Penn

10. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) Petri

11. The Virgin Suicides (1999) S. Coppola

12. The Cranes Are Flying (1957) Kalatozov

13. All the President’s Men (1976) Pakula

14. Hud (1963) Ritt

15. Rashoman (1950) Kurosawa

"Like Countries You Can’t Name" How the Virgin Suicides Explores Males' Enduring Fascination With Women

To most men, women are an enduring and fascinating mystery. A mystery we spend our whole lives trying to unravel. Misogynists turn their perplexity into anger resenting the complications that arise out of their inability to make sense out of women. But for the rest of us women are to be appreciated and admired in large part for how they beguile us.

(For purposes of this discussion we’ll set gender fluidity and non-binary individuals aside for separate discussion.)

Young boys reject females entirely finding them far too strange and unknowable to even consider. But by adolescence when sexual attraction develops, males start a lifetime of curiosity and exploration about these strange creatures who do things like wear dresses, put on makeup and eschew sports. Those girls who don’t wear make up or dresses and do play sports are further wonders: why aren’t they doing what other girls do? 

Women are in control. They often look at us knowingly possessing a strange wisdom we have no access to. Society requires that we  come to them to initiate a relationship and they’re generally happy to make us wait. If truly interested in us and if we can’t see what’s right in front of us, women know how to manipulate us. Women are remarkably adept at getting what they want.

It's been said that "women go to Mars to eat candy bars while men go to Jupiter to get more stupider." Truth. 

I recently read The Virgin Suicides, a brilliant novel by Jeffrey Eugenides and then watched the equally brilliant film from 1999 faithfully based on it directed by Sofia Coppola. (It was Eugenides’ first novel and Coppola’s first film, what great starts to careers!) The story is about five sisters who commit suicide. The youngest goes first and the others follow a year later as a group. Both book and film seem to be about the girls, their family and what might possess five teenage siblings to take their own lives. But on closer examination I think the story is really about the boys who narrate the story and watch the girls from across the street. The boys devote large portions of their days and nights obsessing over, watching, and trying to communicate with the girls. I've seen The Virgin Suicides described as a coming-of-age story. It is the boys who come of age.

The story is told decades after the girls have died: the boys, now men, still see one another and still discuss and even argue about the sisters. There’s nothing like suicide to deepen the mystery of what makes a person tick. When there are five suicides the mystery is that much deeper. 

This is also a story about yearning. The boys yearn to understand the girls, to help them, protect them, to possess them and — though it’s unspoken — to make love to them. They ache as they watch the girls and they ache decades later to think of them.

An important element of the story is the sisters’ repressive parents who limit their daughters' social interactions to heavily chaperoned parties or dates watching TV with the rest of the family. When one of the girls (played by Kristen Dunst in the film) stays out until the wee hours after the homecoming dance, they are all pulled out of school and their rock albums are destroyed. They are prisoners. Obviously this does more harm than good and likely hastens the girls’ destinies. 

Of course the parents are bereft at the loss of their children but more than that they are stunned, overwhelmed by the enormity of an incomprehensible loss. Whether they accept any culpability in the mass suicide is left to the reader/audience to ponder.

In the book the boys pursue the mystery of the suicides well into adulthood. Not their years in college, their jobs, their marriages, or their children have stood in the way of their obsession.

It can be like that. Females take up a tremendous amount of space in men’s brains. 

What is she thinking?

What did that look mean?

Why did she say no?

Why did she say yes?

Why on Earth does she like him?

What does she do up in her room?

What do they talk about?

Does she like sex, does she think about?

What does she think of me?

What does she look like naked?

It sometimes seems a miracle to a man that a woman he likes finds something to like about him. If this progresses to love…well, that’s an incredible gift and the smart ones among us are eternally grateful beyond words. That we so often find ways to sabotage our relationships with women is a sad commentary on the male ego and masculine-based stupidity.

Part of what makes the Virgin Suicides work is that the boys respect the girls yet don’t put them on pedestals. They see them as wondrous creatures, a gift from the heavens. Any tidbit of information they can learn is cherished as helping forge an understanding of why the girls are so compelling.  They don’t objectify the girls — a cardinal sin that men are forever committing. Yes, they’re pretty, but they are even more distant than most girls, even more inaccessible. The brutal finality of their deaths means that they are forever out of reach, rendered topics of discussion and not people to have and to hold and to understand and to a life share with. 

We do love a good mystery.

I’ve been on this planet for a long time and I barely understand women anymore now than I did when I was a teenager. I’ve accepted that such is the way of the world and content myself that I know what I need to. The Virgin Suicides serves as another mechanism through which to explore this mystery. I’m grateful for that.