One of the unofficial mainstays of Cinevent and the Columbus Moving Picture Show is Lloyd Nolan, an extremely likeable actor who can deliver quips like no one else. This month we celebrate his work.
MICHAEL SCHLESINGER: Last month, I cited The Boogie Man Will Get You as one of my absolute favorite B-pictures. The only other one I might hold in equal esteem is Buy Me That Town (Par, 1941). So you could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather when Samantha told me that this month's topic would be Lloyd Nolan. Truly a coincidence of near-Biblical proportions. Of course, if next month is giant sea creatures, then I'm outta here!
SAMANTHA GLASSER: We've already covered Sh! The Octopus, so I think you're safe.
MS: Oh yes, I remember now. What I can't remember is the first time I saw this-- it might have been Syracuse in 1986-- but I do remember buying my 16 of it at Cinevent for a measly $50. (In fairness to the seller, title-wise it ain't exactly The Wizard of Oz.) I love it so much that back in the early '90s I wrote a screenplay for a remake that almost got bought by Touchstone-- but that's another story. (Though it's still available if anyone wants to finance it.)
SG: Not to undercut your sale, but why remake something that was done so well the first time? The honest answer, I know, is that people don't watch old movies, but we hope those that do will give this one a look.
MS: Well, there were differences. Obviously it was set in the present, but I also made one of the two male leads a woman, thus setting up a romantic triangle that added a fair amount of tension to the story, a bit like His Girl Friday. But I seem to be getting ahead of myself!
Anyway, I coined a thing called Lloyd Nolan Syndrome-- that fate suffered by an actor who's so consistently and seemingly effortlessly great that he's simply taken for granted, especially at awards time. (Robert Ryan, for another, could also claim this mantle.) In a 51-year film career, Nolan was never nominated for an Oscar. (He did win an Emmy, though, for a "single" performance in the 1950s.) He could easily yo-yo between lead and supporting, comedy and drama, hero and villain, Bs and As, even MGM and Republic, and never failed to deliver. Buy Me That Town showcases several of these attributes in the same picture.
SG: I'm obviously a big Nolan fan. There was an abysmally written book published in 2010 that intensely disappointed me because this man deserves the best treatment, not a bunch of plot synopses pressed together into a book. It is always a pleasure to stumble upon him in a film, and his Michael Shayne cannot be topped. This is a great movie to see if you want proof of his acting chops. He doesn't look intimidating, in fact he's quite nice to look at, but he holds himself with an authority that makes people take him seriously. But the thing I love most about him is the vein of humor that permeates his characters even through the menace. It is used to strengthen the intimidating moments, but also to show why he is so persuasive.
MS: A lot of that is his voice-- a rich baritone that makes you pay heed. But let's get to the plot. Nolan plays the lieutenant to crime boss Sheldon Leonard (of course), who's just been drafted. He's left in charge, but then declares that the old days are over; he intends to take a hiatus, and tells the rest of the gang (notably the inevitable Warren Hymer, Edward Brophy and Horace MacMahon) to go find legitimate work. He and his best pal Louie (a very atypical turn by Albert Dekker in the big-dumb-lug role normally played by Hymer or Nat Pendleton) decide to just drive around and see the country.
Unfortunately, the tour is short-lived when they're pulled over by a motorcycle cop Olin Howlin in the Connecticut countryside and led into a tiny hamlet called Middle Village; Nolan, more amused than concerned, decides to play along. The judge (Richard Carle) informs them they violated the speed limit; Nolan agrees to pay the fine, thinking it's only gonna be two bucks. It turns out to be a lot more than that; it seems that since the factory closed, Middle Village has fallen on hard times, and because it's an unincorporated village, they're free to set their own fines.
SG: This business of a city attempting to fix its financial straits reminds me of the local Village of Brice, who got in trouble for its excessive ticketing, which is now issuing sanctions as civil violations.
MS: Wow, I did not know that. Wonder if they saw the movie one night on TV. Anyway, Nolan quickly discovers that the town is actually for sale; he tells Dekker (and eventually the others) that they're now UNretired. I really don't wanna give more away, since the plot takes a lot of soft twists and turns, but trust me, you'll be captivated throughout.
SG: Dekker and Sheldon Leonard worked together first on stage, sharing a dressing room during the production Fly Away Home with Thomas Mitchell and Montgomery Clift, back when he was known as Albert Van Dekker.
MS: Holy cow, what a cast. What I would have given to see that!
SG: After the success of Tall, Dark and Handsome, also in 1941, Leonard got a contract with 20th Century Fox making $650 per week. "My bank account fattened up fast on that rich diet," he said. "That was the good news. The bad news was that I had no control over the parts I played." Although Nolan was also under contract with 20th Century Fox, they were borrowed by Paramount for this coupling, their first until 1946 when they made Somewhere in the Night.
MS: The cast also includes Constance Moore as a love interest for Nolan, Barbara Jo Allen (in Vera Vague mode) as likewise for Dekker ("I wanna be your mole." "You mean moll?"), the also inevitable Edwin Maxwell and Charles Lane as a couple of shysters, and in smaller roles Rod Cameron, Russell Hicks, Pierre Watkin, Trevor Bardette, Si Jenks and many others. Indeed, if you're a true film buff, you'll be in heaven here, because almost every speaking part--and a few non-speaking ones--is a familiar face. And while most of the cast plays strictly to type (and really, would we want it any other way?), kudos must go to Dekker for working so far out of his comfort zone. It's a shame he didn't stretch like this more often, though of course he didn't always have his choice of roles.
SG: Allen'/Vague's character would have been on a reality show like Love After Lockup in modern times. She is creepily interested in the gangsters. Screenland magazine called her out in their review, saying, "Barbara Jo Allen's (Vera Vague) interpretation of a prim spinster alone is worth your time and money. Don't miss it." She performed as Vera Vague on the weekly half-hour comedy Signal Carnival on the radio, but transitioned to Allen for her film career.
MS: Including a bunch of Vera Vague Columbia two-reelers, two of which earned Oscar nominations.
SG: The concept of buying a town reminded me immediately of Schitt's Creek, where a fallen-from-grace formerly-wealthy family is forced to live in a town they bought as a gag gift for their son years ago. The sensibility is completely different but Buy Me That Town also has a light tone.
MS: Yes, the film plays basically as a comedy, but it has a share of serious moments as well, as a number of characters come close to death as the story plays out. And as Nolan and the gang slowly fall under the spell of small-town life, it's difficult not to see this as some sort of weird travesty of Lost Horizon, though I doubt that was on the minds of any of the four writers (including first-timer and future A-list producer Martin Rackin). Director Eugene Forde, who worked frequently with Nolan, knows how to keep this type of picture moving right along, and at a tidy 71 minutes, it was just long enough to play top of the bill in smaller markets where the cast was considered above par for a regulation B.
SG: Don Miller wrote in his book B Movies, "Before the war, Paramount had bene consistent in giving value for the dollar. Producer Sol C. Siegel had gotten off to a good start, and in the fall of 1941 supervised a neat little gangster comedy Buy Me That Town..."
Otto Chapek of the New Annex Theatre in Anamoore, ND said, "This picture got some laughs, but not much to it. I paid too much for it; so what?"
Motion Picture Daily's Edward Greir said, "Although nothing pretentious, this picture has genuine entertainment values and should prove highly satisfactory program fare being substantially better than most such films."
MS: Sounds about right. Those Bs generally got a lot less respect than we give them nowadays. As I always
say, back then nobody applauded when Shemp Howard or Charles Lane showed up.
One eelightful anecdote: in 1997, we got Constance Moore to be a guest at Cinecon. When she arrived, she was somewhat dismayed to learn we were showing this; clearly she had bad memories of it. (It was not unusual for older stars to look back on a film and judge it by the experience of making it rather than the finished picture, though in this case, no one in the cast except Hymer had a reputation for bad behavior and in any event they hardly have any scenes together.) I assured her that it had been shown before and always plays like gangbusters. She was still unconvinced, so finally I said, "As a personal favor to me, would you give it a second chance?" This was a ludicrous thing to ask, given that she had literally just met me, but she agreed. Needless to say, it did play like gangbusters, and she admitted in the Q&A that it was far better than she remembered it. Afterwards, I produced a still from the film to get signed, and she wrote, "To Mike, thanks for 'The Town.'" And I was elated that we had returned the picture to her good graces.
SG: Hearing that stars have bad impressions of their great movies, like Eileen Heckart in Miracle in the Rain, always throws me. It makes sense if you consider they may have only seen them once before they became unavailable. Time has a way of twisting memories, plus the stars were looking at their films in the context of their career advancement, and in Moore's case, she is basically the pretty face in the sea of gangsters.
MS: No doubt, but her film career was minor at best, with only Buck Rogers and You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man as the stand-outs, and in both of those cases she’s also “just the girl.”
This is an almost perfect B (or B+, if you will). Splendid cast, witty script and snappy pace. NO matter how many times I see it, it never fails to utterly beguile me. I hope it finds its way to disc one day-- are ya listenin', Kino Lorber? Five stars, but only because I can't give six.
SG: I don't have the emotional connection or the history with this movie that you do, but I enjoyed watching this immensely and can see it improving upon future viewings. Four stars and three cheers for Buy Me That Town!
MS: And eight tentacles for Sh! The Octopus!
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