Stand-In (1937) is one of the funnier comic flicks of the Thirties.  How many of its one-liners were invented by Clarence Budington Kelland, who wrote the novel, and how many came from the movie’s two screenwriter-adapters I don’t know.

What I do know is how smart and penetrating Leslie Howard is in the role of a film company head—and expert in mathematics—who unthinkingly dehumanizes the workers in his financially weakening business.  In truth he’s a decent guy, though, and Joan Blondell is charmingly fine as the woman who knows it and who tries to win his love.  She’s the stand-in actress for an untalented star, Cheri (Marla Shelton), while Cheri is the unknowing romantic stand-in (of sorts) for Blondell—with respect to Howard.

The story should be neater than it is, but it’s agreeable, just like the cast.  Tay Garnett directed tastefully, never insisting on broad comic acting.  This film is better than his Love is News (reviewed earlier) because here both slapstick and one-liners are funny, whereas in the latter film virtually only the slapstick is.  I managed to see Stand-In on YouTube.

The 1938 Algiers contains themes—the criminal as captive (without being in prison), the destruction of human ties, ultimate loss.  But it doesn’t have originality, for the film is an American remake of the French Pepe le Moko, which I’ve never seen.  Pepe is a jewel thief hidden away in unfamiliar Algiers and, original or not, his story is indubitably interesting.  So is the dialogue, of which there is a lot, but not at the expense of action.

This is Hedy Lamarr‘s first U.S. picture; she’s the woman Pepe falls for (not Sigrid Gurie).  Her acting, however, is undistinguished, unlike that of Charles Boyer as the jewel thief.  John Cromwell‘s direction can be curious and canny. . . Yep, it’s a remake, but Algiers, filmed in Algiers, is supremely worth seeing.

I saw the Howard Hawks film, Ceiling Zero (1936)—or let me say I saw a particular print of it—on YouTube.  It was the best I could do since the pic was never released on DVD.

Director Hawks did even better with airline workers in Zero than he did, years later, with cowboys in Red River.  He organizes his scenes of active crews admirably, although this is in truth scriptwriter Frank Wead‘s show, for he adapted his own play.

Aviation technology of the Thirties is (to me) fascinating, and here we get that as well as a surprising amount of aircraft destruction.  And death.  There is no happy ending.  Still, I was happy to be seeing the forgotten Ceiling Zero.

Mary Gordon is a notable American author, and a Catholic.  From The Stories of Mary Gordon (2013), there is “Death in Naples,” a 19-page piece wherein an elderly widow, Lorna, visits Italy with her son and daughter-in-law.

The daughter-in-law is a difficult complainer who suddenly has to leave the Continental country without appreciating any of its splendors.  The son goes with her, and Lorna is left alone.  There is something catalyzed by this:  Lorna sees the inadequacy and absurdity of life.  Among the many details about her that Gordon provides is that “She was not a religious woman,” and to be sure Lorna does not understand how spirituality, or a spiritual life, is to be had.  A certain uplift, however, occurs at the story’s conclusion.

A luminous story it is, and “The Deacon” is also very worthy.  Here, a nun called Joan finds it impossible to Christianly love Gerard, an unsuitable deacon.  He tried to become a priest but “couldn’t cut it at the sem,” although at St. Timothy’s School, where Joan is the principal, he fails to cut it as a teacher as well.  The nun’s weakness regarding love is no worse than the weaknesses of other Christians at the school, and inevitably she must attempt to work her way around it.  She settles for what she is capable of, spiritually.  It’s the kind of subject Mary Gordon faces head-on.