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 The 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

The Unfunny Business of Describing Funny Movies, Plus the Difficulty of Creating Great Comedies, Plus Ten Greats From Ten Different Decades

Andy left Jorma right with Jimmy Fallon doing the Donkey Roll

"We'd like to get to the point where Connor is everywhere, like oxygen or gravity or clinical depression." -- From Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping

Yesterday I watched Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) Taccone/Schaffer for the third time and immediately wanted to write about it. But then the conundrum: How the hell do you write about comedy? It is — pun intended — seriously difficult. 

For the sake of argument let’s say you consider Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (1972) to be absolutely hilarious. What do you say? 

"I laughed a lot."

"It was really funny."

"I laughed so hard I cried."

"There were endless sight gags, screamingly funny prat falls, jokes aplenty, unparalleled satire."

"Side-splitting."

It equates to a "you had to be there" situation.

(By the way, Cries and Whispers, a film I revere, is certainly the least funny movie ever made.)

To convey how funny a movie is, you have to give examples. But there are many problems associated with this approach. First of all, how do you describe slapstick so that the humor comes across? You sound like a ten-year old. “There was this really funny part where they threw pies at each other.” 

You can repeat some of the one-liners but can you deliver them like Groucho Marx? Because if you can't (and you can’t, trust me) then they lose some of their zing — I mean, most of their zing. How do you describe the antics of Chaplin’s Little Tramp? For example the boxing scene in City Lights (1931) Chaplin. You can’t do it justice. Also a lot of humor is surprise. It’s funny because you weren’t expecting it. Which leads to another issue, if you discuss the funny bits in a movie you’re giving away a lot of humor that people should discover for themselves. To really describe a comedy you have to give a lot away. Nobody wants that.

Describing what makes you laugh is like describing an orgasm. Try that. Here, I’ll give it a go:

“Upon ejaculation I felt really good.” 

Doesn't capture the moment, does it?

How about “it was ecstasy.” 

Yeah, it probably was, but what’s that like? 

From Pop Star

You might as well try to explain to someone who has never had a strawberry what strawberries taste like. “They’re fruity!” Or: “they’re kind of like raspberries but different.” Do tell.

How do you describe the manner in which  Gold Rush, makes you laugh? “There’s a scene where Chaplin makes potatoes dance.” Yeah? And? 

See what I'm saying?

Again this was inspired by my third viewing of Pop Star. I laughed more than the previous two times I saw it, the mark of a great comedy. (I now feel obligated to tell you that the three stars and writers of the film, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaeffer, were all students of mine when I taught middle school. See this post from last Summer about hanging with Jorma in a park.) Great comedies aren't just funny the first time, they stay funny and can even get funnier. Not sure how that works -- but it does.

When I set out to write about Pop Star I was struck by how clever it is. It’s a brilliant satire on…well, a lot of things. The modern music industry, celebrity culture, consumerism and friendship. It is also at times very silly. Silly, when done right, can be hilarious. Silly, when not done right, can be an absolute bore.

You've got to be smart to get silly just right. Indeed if you pay attention you'll notice that virtually all great comedians and comedy writers are intelligent people. 

Something just occurred to me that I’m going to insert here. Humor is subjective. I suppose there are some people who don’t find Groucho Marx funny (I hope never to meet such an individual). I may shock some of you by stating that I’ve never found Laurel and Hardy particularly funny and to me W.C Fields is tedious. Most comedy films made in the last forty years leave me cold. (Does Adam Sandler appeal to anyone over fourteen?) So you can recommend a comedy film to someone and they may not dig it at all. Different strokes. Comedy that appeals to a broad audience is rare. That's what made Chaplin a genius.

(Here I diverge to the topic of how difficult comedy is to do, never mind write about.)

Comedy is hard to do in films. In a sit com you’re trying fill about twenty-two minutes with laughs, in a movie you’re looking for ninety minutes worth of chuckles. Plus with a sitcom you’ve already established characters, setting and common scenarios. Making a succession of comedy films that are all funny is nigh on impossible. Look at some of the masters. Chaplin did it for a long time with one and two reelers that lasted from a quarter to a half an hour. When he did features he was taking several years to make them. He had a nearly perfect record but wasn't cranking out one a year. The Marx Brothers made six great comedies right out of the gate but after that the laughs were fewer and farther between. Woody Allen has probably made as many or more great comedies as anyone over fifty years but he’s mixed in some serious films as well. 

Chaplin and potatoes in Gold Rush

The Monty Python troupe had an impressive run on their television series and with a few movies, but they burned out. Comedy is hard work. When writing humor pieces I usually find that the first few funny bits pop right out, then I have to give the next few a good think. Later it's like pulling teeth. I've scrapped a lot because it wasn't worth the investment of time. (It's not like anyone is paying me.)

Comedies rely almost totally on good writing. A bad script for any film is impossible to overcome. In comedy especially. Of course you’ve got to have a good director. It doesn’t even need to be a director whose done a lot of comedy. Alfred Hitchcock directed one screwball comedy and it was one of the best of all time, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941). 

Howard Hawks directed some of our greatest comedies (His Girl Friday (1940), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938)) but also directed westerns, gangster films, war pictures and anything else you can name. 

Billy Wilder directed a passel of good comedies but he was working with scripts that he co-wrote. 

Many directors exclusively do comedies and only a few of them are really good at it. Mel Brooks comes to mind. Sam Wood was pretty consistent as was Leo McCarey. Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis had a lot of success too. But many of the worst comedies are cranked out by hacks who can’t seem to get it right. Many of these make money but they don’t add to the culture as they're rife with predicable bits, toilet humor and the over done man-getting-hit-in-the-groin. They're quickly forgotten.

Mike Mysers produced what I consider a masterpiece of comedy with the first Austin Powers film. His second Powers movie was not quite as good and the third was a dog. That's a reflection on how difficult it is.

Preston Sturges wrote and directed seven of our great comedies (highlighted by The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels both in 1941) in a five-year span from 1940-1944 and that, folks, was that. Nothing after.

Comedies also rely on the right actors and they don’t have to be people who deal exclusively or mostly in comedy. "Serious actors" have appeared in very funny films and been part of what made them good. Jack Lemmon, Robert DeNiro, Henry Fonda, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep and Katherine Hepburn all graced hilarious films. If you can act, you can act funny.

Of course there are actors who have regularly graced comedies. Cary Grant, William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gene Wilder, John Belushi, Seth Rogen, Bill Murray and Catherine O’Hara, to name but a few.

Catherine O'Hara reminds me of the Christopher Guest troupe which had a great run of comedies such as Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000) and A Mighty Wind (2003). But there's been nothing new for years.

Groucho Marx in Duck Soup

(It appears that in some respects I’ve disproven my point. I’ve been able to write about funny films. Of course this hasn’t been terribly funny and I’ve mentioned films, directors and actors without giving any examples of how they tickle the ribs.)

Comedy is hit or miss for everyone involved. The writer, director and certainly the audience. There's little worse than watching a movie for laughs and getting nary a chuckle out of it. It takes a brave person to even try it.  Thankfully there are  talented souls who love getting a laugh and are willing to work at it. When it works they've made us laugh and laughter is one of the greatest gifts you can provide. The next most difficult thing to making a good comedy is writing about it. But I tried.

My Ten Favorite Comedies From Each of the Ten Preceding Decades

Twenties: The Gold Rush (1925) Chaplin

Thirties: Duck Soup (1933) McCarey

Forties: His Girl Friday (1940) Hawks

Fifties: Some Like it Hot (1959) Wilder

Sixties: The Producers (1967) Brooks

Seventies: Manhattan (1979) Allen

Eighties: Arthur (1981) Gordon

Nineties: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) Roach

Oughts: Mean Girls (2004) Waters

Tens: Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) Taccone/Schaffer

I Answer the Question: What Were the Best Decades Enjoyed by Film Actors?

Humphrey Bogart in Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Last Summer I compiled a list of the ten best decades enjoyed by film directors. Today I'm presenting a list of the best decades enjoyed by film stars. There are several caveats, the most important being that my definition of a good or great film is based solely on my own tastes. I'm sure anyone else taking on the same task would have very different lists. Also I'm not going by ten-year periods but specific decades. So an actor being  in seven great films between, say, 1974 and 1983 is of no help.

Thus chance plays a huge factor. Jimmy Stewart, for example, surely would have made the list for the 1940s save for the small matter of World War II which interrupted his career. Still, I thought it a worthy exercise. 

Another criteria I established was that an actor had to have been in at least five really good films in the decade. This eliminated lots and lots and lots of actors who appeared in four great films. Finally only lead actors were considered.

I came up with a dozen lists. I offer them in no particular order; all are followed by comments.

Humphrey Bogart ‘40s

High Sierra (1941) Walsh

Maltese Falcon (1941) Huston

All Through the Night (1942) Sherman

Casablanca (1942) Curtiz

Passage to Marseille (1944) Curtiz

To Have and Have Not (1944) Hawks

The Big Sleep (1946) Hawks

Dark Passage (1947) Daves

Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Huston

Key Largo (1948) Huston

Note: If I was going to rank them this would be a strong candidate for the number one slot. Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep and Treasure of the Sierra Madre area all classics. Also, there are ten films here, tied with Grant (directly below) for most.

Cary Grant '40s

His Girl Friday (1940) Hawks

My Favorite Wife(1940) Kanin

The Philadelphia Story (1940) Cukor

Suspicion (1941) Hitchcock

Arsenic and Old Lace (1942) Capra

The Talk of the Town (1942) Stevens

Mr. Lucky (1943) Potter

Destination Tokyo (1943) Daves

Notorious (1946) Hitchcock

The Bishop’s Wife (1947) Koster

Note: Grant almost made the list for his films from the '30s and '50s too.

Al Pacino in Serpico

Al Pacino ‘70s

Panic in Needle Park (1971) Schatzberg

The Godfather (1972) Coppola

Scarecrow (1973) Schatzberg

Serpico (1973) Lumet

The Godfather Part II (1974) Coppola

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Lumet

And Justice for All (1979) Jewison

Note: He was brilliant in all of these and should have won a couple of Oscars.

Dustin Hoffman ‘70s

Little Big Man (1970) Penn

Straw Dogs (1971) Peckinpah

Lenny (1974) Fosse

All the President’s Men (1976) Pakula

Marathon Man (1976) Schlesinger

Straight Time (1978) Grosbard

Note: Hoffman has had a long illustrious career but his best work was early on.

Bette Davis ‘40s

The Letter (1940) Wyler

The Great Lie (1941) Goulding

The Little Foxes (1941) Wyler

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) Keighley

Now, Voyager (1942) Rapper

Watch on the Rhine (1943) Shumlin

Mr. Skeffington (1944) Sherman

June Bride (1948) Windust

Note: Ms. Davis got a passel of Oscar nominations in the '40s and they were well-deserved.

Barbara Stanwyck ‘40s

Remember the Night (1940) Leisen

The Lady Eve (1941) Sturges

Meet John Doe (1941) Capra

Ball of Fire (1941) Hawks

Double Indemnity (1944) Wilder

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) Godfrey

Note: Ms. Stanwyck had pretty good decades in the '30s and '50s, but the '40s saw her best work.

Max Von Sydown in The Seventh Seal

Max Von Sydow ‘60s

The Virgin Spring (1960) Bergman

Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Bergman

Winter Light (1963) Bergman

Hour of the Wolf (1968) Bergman

Shame (1968) Bergman

The Passion of Anna (1969) Bergman

Note: For me Von Sydow had one of the greatest careers of any actor. Of course it didn't hurt that he worked so often with Ingmar Bergman.

Woody Allen ‘70s

Bananas (1971) Allen

Play it Again, Sam (1972) Ross

Love and Death (1975) Allen

The Front (1976) Ritt

Annie Hall (1977) Allen

Manhattan (1979)

Note: Allen directed himself in four of the six films.

Henry Fonda ‘40s

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Ford

The Lady Eve(1941) Sturges

The Male Animal (1942) Nugent

The Ox-Bow Incident (1942) Wellman

My Darling Clementine (1946) Ford

The Fugitive (1947) Ford

Fort Apache (1948) Ford

Note: Grapes of Wrath and Lady Eve are one helluva start to a decade.

Diane Keaton ‘70s

The Godfather (1972) Coppola

Play it Again, Sam (1972) Ross

The Godfather Part II (1974) Coppola

Love and Death (1975) Allen

Annie Hall (1977) Allen

Interiors (1978) Allen

Manhattan (1979) Allen

Note: Five of the films were directed by Woody Allen and the other two were the Godfather films. 

Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express

Marlene Dietrich ‘30s

The Blue Angel (1930) von Sternberg

Morocco (1930) von Sternberg

Dishonored (1931) von Sternberg

Shanghai Express (1932) von Sternberg

Blonde Venus (1932) von Sternberg

Scarlett Empress (1934) von Sternberg

The Devil is a Woman (1935 von Sternberg

Knight Without Armour (1937) Feyder

Destry Rides Again (1939) Marshall

Note: With nine films Dietrich finishes  second for most excellent films in a decade and first among women.

James Cagney ‘30s

The Public Enemy (1931) Wellman

The Mayor of Hell (1933) Mayo

Footlight Parade (1933) Bacon

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) Dieterle

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) Curtiz

The Roaring Twenties (1939) Curtiz

Note: In addition to these top notch films, Cagney appeared in several good ones, truly prolific production.