Sam Wood Movies
When American director Sam Wood first reported to Cecil B. De Mille as an assistant in 1915, Wood had already dabbled in real estate and acted on-stage under the name of Chad Applegate. A solo director by 1919, Wood worked throughout the '20s directing some of Paramount's biggest stars, among them Gloria Swanson and Wallace Reid. He began his long association with MGM in 1927, working with personalities as varied as Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Marie Dressler, and Jimmy Durante. He guided the Marx Brothers through their two most profitable films, A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937), and turned out one of the most accomplished sentimental dramas ever made in Hollywood, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). Hopping from studio to studio in the '40s, Wood directed Ginger Rogers through her Oscar-winning performance in Kitty Foyle (1940), successfully transferred Thornton Wilder's highly theatrical Our Town (1940) to the screen (even the studio-imposed happy ending worked), and assembled the quintessential baseball biopic, The Pride of the Yankees (1942).The list of Wood's successes would seem to assure him a niche in the ranks of all-time best Hollywood directors, yet his reputation has tarnished since his death in 1949. Most detractors insist that Wood was a hack, citing his habit of shooting each scene an average of 20 times, his only verbal direction in each instance being "Go out there and sell 'em a load of clams." In truth, this technique was invaluable in wearing down such mannered performers as Walter Brennan, Dan Duryea, Frank Morgan, and Wallace Beery, until they were tired enough to behave like human beings instead of play-actors. The 20-take habit also enabled the more limited actors to re-think their interpretations until they'd found nuances that they would never have considered on the first take: Ronald Reagan, who was certainly no Olivier, was never better than in Wood's Kings Row (1942). Taking into consideration all the complaints about Sam Wood, the biggest bone of contention seems to be his reactionary politics. Wood was active in a number of right-wing organizations, and in 1947 he virulently condemned Hollywood's "left" before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Those whose politics are diametrically opposite to Wood's dwell incessantly upon this aspect of his life, embellishing the facts by painting him as a bigot and (in the words of Groucho Marx) a "fascist." But just as it is fitting and proper to separate the performances of a Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, or Paul Newman from their political agendas, so too would it be fair to extend the same courtesy to Wood. No matter what sort of man Sam Wood was personally, his string of Hollywood hits should be his true legacy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
This light comedy, based on the French farce La Veglione by Alexandre Bisson and Albert Carre, should have been funnier than it actually turned out to be -- especially with players like Wanda Hawley, Harrison Ford, and famed character actor Tully Marshall. Martinot, a French lawyer (Ford) falls for Susanne Bergomat (Hawley), but has to go on a business trip before he can find out much about her. So he asks his friend, Paul Blythe (Ramsey Wallace), to look into her background for him, and to propose on his behalf. Blythe winds up falling in love with her himself, so he tells Martinot that her father's a drunkard, her mother's a cabaret singer, and that she has inherited the worst traits of both. Martinot writes her off and Blythe marries her. A year later, the young lawyer wants to visit his friend, which sends Blythe into a panic. To hide Susanne's presence, he sends her off with his business partner, Dr. Poulard (Marshall), to visit her parents. But first, they make a stop in Nice to see the Carnival, during which Dr. Poulard gets drunk and passes out -- so Susanne goes off on her own. She runs into Martinot and discovers that he wanted to marry her. She's mad at being duped, so she decides to trick her husband into believing she is all the things he claimed she was, and worse. Mrs. Poulard (Lillian Leighton) helps in this regard when she accuses Susanne of having an affair with her husband. When Blythe has finally been utterly destroyed by Susanne's scandalous behavior, she lets him know it was all a hoax. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Wallace Reid plays one of his speed demon roles in this picture, which is based on the Saturday Evening Post story, "The Hippopotamus Parade" by Byron Morgan. Dusty Rhoades (Reid) leaves just about everybody in the dust when he steps on the gas pedal. But this talent does nothing to win over Patrick MacMurran (Charles Ogle), the father of his sweetheart, Virginia (Lois Wilson). MacMurran owns a truck company and suggests that if Dusty does a good job of publicizing his trucks, he might give the union his blessings. So Dusty goes to work but fails miserably until the day the Cabrillo dam is about to burst. He loads up a shipment of dynamite onto five MacMurran trucks and leads them through nearly impassable roads to their destination just in the nick of time. Because he has saved the day, Dusty wins his girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
It would be easy to assume that combining Mary Pickford's charm with director Cecil B. DeMille's penchant for the spectacular would create an exceptional piece of work. But judging from this picture, and the one made before it -- Romance of the Redwoods -- that just wasn't the case. The bottom line was that both Pickford and DeMille wanted control over their productions and neither of them were truly capable of the kind of compromise required by collaboration. As a result, their work together suffered. America had recently entered World War I when this picture was made, and it was one of innumerable patriotic films produced around this time. It begins in 1914 with American Angela Moore (Pickford) and her two foreign suitors -- a German, Karl Von Austreim (Jack Holt) and a Frenchman, Count Jules de Destin (Raymond Hatton). Angela prefers Karl, but when war breaks out in Europe, both men go to serve their countries. Eventually Angela, too, sails for France, but her ship is sunk by a U-boat (although not named, the ship is presumed to be the Lusitania). She is saved, but when she arrives at her destination, she finds her aunt dead, and the family chateau transformed into a hospital for those wounded in battle. The Germans arrive to fight, rape and pillage. Angela and Karl are reunited when, unaware of her identity, he tries to attack her. She forgives him this transgression, but when the Germans discover her sending messages to the French, the commander (Herbert Bosworth) orders her shot. At this, Karl denounces his country and he is ordered to be shot, too. The pair are saved by a French shell which blows up the Germans at an opportune moment, and after an all-night battle, they are found by the Allies, sleeping at the foot of a cross. Although Karl is arrested, Angela is able to have him freed and they leave for the U.S. together. This mediocre film was overshadowed by the far superior Poor Little Rich Girl, which was released earlier in the year. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
