Close, but no cigar: Louis Bromfield and Hollywood
In the heyday of Louis Bromfield's time as a popular American novelist -- a member of the post-World War I generation that produced F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway -- he quite naturally found his talent in demand in the nation's film capital, which for a period not only utilized his published fiction as source material but also put him to work on original screenplays and adaptations.
Indeed, while his name was seen on screen as often as his works appeared on the bestseller lists, studios were drawn to his swift and very human tales of souls and families at odds with themselves as well as the world around them and the rotting traditions that entrap them. Many of the movies derived from his novels and short fiction could be classified as romances, the greatest of which was Twentieth Century-Fox's version of his 1937 crowd pleaser THE RAINS CAME. And some fell into the subgenre of "weepers," as evidenced with the 1934 production THE LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS, coming as it did at the close of the "pre-Code" era of adult approach to cinematic themes and the censorship that followed. Others were attempts to combine drama with comedic elements, such as IT ALL CAME TRUE (1940) and JOHNNY COME LATELY (1943).
Those titles are among the better known in the Bromfield film category. The International Movie Data Base (IMDB) reveals a number of other movies related to Bromfield's work, a few perhaps not seen since their original playdates, if it all, which speaks to the seeming oblivion into which the author's work has fallen since his passing in 1956 at the age of 59. As critic and literary historian David D. Anderson pointed out, Bromfield's accomplishments -- including his winning the Pulitzer Prize for his third novel, EARLY AUTUMN (1926) -- had been all but forgotten within years of his death.This neglect was due to several factors, as Anderson and other scholars have explained. Although his reader base remained strong, Bromfield's fiction grew less inspired during the second World War and into peacetime. Bromfield instead turned to advocating agriculture and economic theories of his own that revealed him as an Ohio farm boy who had never forgotten his rural background despite all of his years of living overseas and the sophistication it afforded him. As Anderson noted, Bromfield sought in his writings "to define a Jeffersonian ideal that had apparently become an anachronism in a society dominated by industrial materialism."*
I.
Hollywood adaptations tended to overlook the finer aspects and intent of Bromfield's work, except in a case where a screenplay was fashioned from one of his stories expressly written as entertainment. Such was the case with the first feature in which his name was associated. BOBBED HAIR, a look at the then-contemporary scene published in 1925, a year after Bromfield burst onto the literary scene with THE GREEN BAY TREE, was quickly snapped up by Warner Bros. The subsequent screen version was released Oct. 25, 1925, directed by Alan Crosland and featuring as its stars Marie Prevost, Kenneth Harlan, Louise Fazenda and Dolores Costello.
Bromfield was among 20 authors who contributed a chapter apiece to the novel BOBBED HAIR that ranged from theater critic Alexander Woollcott to Kermit Roosevelt, son of then-lately deceased former President Theodore Roosevelt. Future director Lewis Milestone collaborated on the adaptation for the screen with Jack Wagner.
In fact, by the time Bromfield next encountered Hollywood, in 1930, Milestone had risen to the top rank of directors, winning the Oscar for Best Direction of 1929-1930 thanks to his helming of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT for Universal, which studio chief Carl Laemmle Jr. sought to make a presence by offering higher-echelon product to theaters for greater returns. The picturization of Erich Maria Remarque's celebrated 1929 anti-war novel cost Universal $1 million-plus to produce, leaving no doubt of Laemmle's intentions as well as creating a film classic for the ages.
In the blush of critical and audience reception the film earned the studio, Laemmle was successful in borrowing Bromfield from independent producer Samuel Goldwyn to work on the screenplay of the upcoming DRACULA, which Laemmle also envisioned as an extravaganza. Bromfield, whose literary reputation continued growing as the '20s closed, was enticed from his home in France to spend some time in the film capital as it adjusted to the demands of sound film and the impact of the economic depression that followed Wall Street's epic collapse in October 1929. The spoken word was then the rage, and Goldwyn liked having literary and entertainment giants associated with his product, although he reportedly gave Bromfield little or nothing to do.
Bromfield's contribution to what became the first talking film horror classic has been well-detailed by DRACULA experts David J. Skal and Gary Don Rhodes, each of whom have noted that the treatment submitted by Bromfield differed greatly from the finished product Universal released early in 1931. Not a horror specialist at all, Bromfield's proposed scenario drew more inspiration from Bram Stoker's original novel than the stage version that had thrilled Broadway in 1927-1928 and then on national tour, upon whose popularity Universal sought to capitalize.
Additionally, the Bromfield version suggested that the titular undead nobleman undergo a name change to "Count de Ville" (get it?) once he leaves the Carpathian Mountains for England. Characters not found either in the play or Stoker's 1897 work were also proposed by the author, who at least gained points for originality. Some of Bromfield's ideas were incorporated into additional treatments by others, with Garrett Fort receiving script credit when the production went before cameras under the direction of Tod Browning in the fall of 1930. By then, too, decreasing income as the depression spread around the country forced Laemmle to curtail a number of his grander ambitions for DRACULA and other projects.
Breaking off with Goldwyn and reportedly disillusioned with the filmmaking experience, Bromfield had further cause to regret the trip when the one feature that arose from his own story, the musical ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT (released by United Artists on Jan. 14, 1931) proved to be Goldwyn's biggest boxoffice disappointment to date. Directed by George Fitzmaurice from a screenplay by Sidney Howard, it's not hard to see why it failed to catch on with audiences. The plot dealing with a Hungarian flower girl (Evelyn Laye) looking to ensnare a dashing count (John Boles) seemed last gasp then and didn't improve over time; Leonard Maltin and associates found it "OK for fanciers of old-fashioned romantic nonsense."**
ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT, which featured Leon Errol and Lilyan Tashman in support, came as an early sound obsession with musicals reached the end of its cycle. The Cinderella-like tale, hardly Bromfield's cup of tea, probably didn't mean much either to audiences who wanted something more substantial for the hard-pressed coins they were spending on movie tickets. But as a Goldwyn project, ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT was well-produced, and Bromfield was presumably well-paid as befitted his reputation, allowing him to return to his French enclave and produce more novels.
One of his more current works, TWENTY-FOUR HOURS (1930), dealing with sudden and major changes in the lives of a number of New Yorkers over the period of time indicated by the title, appealed to Paramount, which released its feature adaptation as 24 HOURS on Oct. 3, 1931. Marion Gering directed from a screenplay by Louis Weitzenkorn, whose Broadway success FIVE STAR FINAL of 1930-1931 provided Warner Bros.-First National with one of its more hard-hitting urban expose movies (under the same title) the month prior to the release of 24 HOURS.Stiff but popular studio leading man Clive Brook led the cast of 24 HOURS, backed by Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis and Regis Toomey. Bromfield's novel was a swift study of characters representing his concern with those who attained position and power merely by using people and events, giving nothing in return, and those who reached the same heights through initiative and contributions back to society. Without a print of 24 HOURS to examine, it's difficult to say how much of the film delved into the more serious themes of Bromfield's work, but was no doubt melodramatic enough to serve as a crowd pleaser. Despite the times, audiences then as now remain fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
II.
With the Bromfield name prompting at least a share of interest from moviegiers, Paramount chose the author's short story "Single Night" (appearing in the June 1932 edition of Cosmopolitan) as the basis for a vehicle for its new tough guy star George Raft, contracted by the studio after his impressive work as Paul Muni's right-hand man in SCARFACE (1932). The resulting adaptation by Kathryn Scola and Vincent Lawrence, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (released Oct. 29, 1932) cast Raft as an ex-boxer turned speakeasy operator seeking refinement and looking to attain same from a classy lady (Constance Cummings).
The resulting romance is "a crashing bore" in the estimation of Maltin & Co.,*** but what has made NIGHT AFTER NIGHT significant is that it was the film debut of Mae West, buxom stage star whose suggestive schtick preceded her arrival in Hollywood. The film contains one of her best-remembered comebacks when a hostess at Raft's joint murmurs "goodness" at the sight of one of Mae's magnificent jewels. "Goodness had nothing to do with it, honey," Mae tartly responds. Archie Mayo directed with William LeBaron handling producer's duties; in addition to Mae, who immediately went into starring vehicles for Paramount, the supporting cast included Wynne Gibson and Roscoe Karns.
A MODERN HERO, Bromfield's 1932 novel chronicling the rise and fall of a charming scoundrel -- a not-so-subtle condemnation of the effect of materialism and industrialization on society -- was just right for WB-First National, which was then engaged in making and releasing swift dramas mirroring the ills of Depression-era America. Prime examples included THE MATCH KING (1932) and EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE (1933), both starring contractee Warren William as smooth and ruthless individuals hungering for success and power, attaining them but at a cost that sometimes involved their lives. Or, as in the case of EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE, the eventual comeuppance turned to the rotter's advantage, which reality tells us happens more often than not.
These productions, done in the breathless style for which WB-First National films of the period became known, were not primarily William's domain. Richard Barthelmess, who got his cinematic start in D.W. Griffith's silent classics BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) and WAY DOWN EAST (1920), survived the talent shakeout caused by the talkie craze and landed at WB, headlining such thematically similar epics as THE FINGER POINTS (1931), ALIAS THE DOCTOR (1932) and the up-to-the-minute HEROES FOR SALE (1933). He thus became a natural as the lead in the company's production of A MODERN HERO, which hit theaters on April 21, 1934, under the direction of Georg Wilhelm Pabst, master of the German school of filmmaking, in what became his only movie made in Hollywood.
The screenplay by Kathryn Scola and Gene Markey changed the ending of the novel to opt for the redemption of Barthelmess' character Paul Rader, onetime circus performer turned automotive magnate, who faces ruin and likely execution at the close of Bromfield's original. Jean Muir, Marjorie Rambeau and Verree Teasdale copped major roles in the production that Pabst (1885-1967) pulled off in efficient fashion thanks to techniques he employed at studios in Berlin and Paris, according to one of his admirers, Louise Brooks. The former Paramount contract player was the female lead in two of Pabst's classics, PANDORA'S BOX and DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (both 1929).
In her famed memoirs, Brooks described the director as lacking in height, stocky and "heavy in repose. But in action his legs carried him on wings that matched the swiftness of his mind."@ He came to the Warners factory at a time when European directors of note either sought greener pastures or freedom from persecution as fascism took hold in Germany and Italy. Pabst, however, returned to Berlin to work in the theater and direct movies into the 1950s. Additionally, A MODERN HERO was Barthelmess' next-to-last film for Warners.
Bromfield's name soon again appeared on screens with the release on June 22, 1934, of THE LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS by RKO Radio, directed by Alfred Santell and starring Ann Harding as the title character in what might have been dismissed as soap opera in its day were it not for its theme of a lengthy extramarital relationship becoming the target of puritanical groups seeking to clean up Hollywood product.Jane Murfin's screenplay was adapted from the Bromfield story "A Scarlet Woman" (McClure's Magazine, January 1927), retitled "The Life of Vergie Winters" when included in the author's first collection of short fiction, AWAKE AND REHEARSE (1929). Marrying for necessity, rising small-town politician John Shadwell (John Boles) maintains a lasting romance with milliner Vergie, fathering a child (Betty Furness as an adult) as his fortunes in public life grow. He is refused a divorce by his venal spouse (Helen Vinson) while stalwart Vergie weathers gossip and suspicion from the more narrow-minded element in town. Shadwell's death at the height of his career bring Vergie's connection to him out of the shadows but to a positive resolution.
David D. Anderson found the original story one of Bromfield's better short works, "display(ing) his insight into the mores and values of late nineteenth-century America as successfully as it can be done; he is repulsed by those standards but at the same time he reveals an air of nostalgia at the passing of the closeness that they represent."@@ That sentiment played well with RKO, whose new production chief Pandro S. Berman continued the long line of studio releases focused on relationships imperiled by talk and community standards, perhaps best seen in George Stevens' ALICE ADAMS (1935) with Katherine Hepburn in the lead.
Santell directed THE LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS with a sensitivity and emphasis on the strength Vergie demonstrates in the face of adversity, a noticeable element in Bromfield's fiction that continued for some years. At the time, Harding was a specialist in such roles and she makes the most of the script's more obvious inspiration from Fannie Hurst's BACK STREET, filmed by Universal in 1932 with Irene Dunne and Boles, who found himself playing a similarly conflicted role in RKO's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE later in 1934.
Yet, THE LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS' perceived romanticizing of adultery didn't sit well with the American Roman Catholic Church, which placed it on its boycott list, as well as public condemnation from the National Legion of Decency. The growing threat from that organization, churches and censorship boards critical of Hollywood content led to the enforcement of a stricter Production Code that summer, a move felt in the film capital for at least another two decades in which dilemmas faced by Vergie Winters and John Shadwell became forbidden topics for movie fare.
III.
For most of the decade's remainder, Bromfield hunkered down on his fiction while becoming fascinated with developments in India as it moved toward the day it would become independent of the British Empire. His tours of the nation provided him with hope that if the Jeffersonian concept of "natural aristocracy" was dead in the U.S., it looked to thrive as Indian leaders sought to build up their country.
The result of his travels and observations was THE RAINS CAME (1937), which almost immediately muscled it way onto the bestseller lists upon publication. His hero, medical officer Maj. Rama Sefti, is a proponent of the "new India," groomed by a progressive maharajah and maharanee to succeed them as leader of the state of Ranchipur. His path forks somewhat when morally bankrupt Lady Esketh comes to Ranchipur to resume an extramarital affair with Sefti's friend, dissolute artist Tom Ransome. When Ransome spurns her, instead finding love with the daughter of missionaries, Lady Esketh turns her romantic attentions upon Sefti. However, the title rainfall, coupled with an earthquake, flooding and disease, reveal nobility and venality in the main characters, some of whom are lost to the disaster.
Twentieth Century-Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck purchased rights to THE RAINS CAME and personally produced the $2 million epic that debuted Sept. 9, 1939, directed by Clarence Brown and starring Tyrone Power as Sefti and Myrna Loy, who like Brown, was borrowed by the studio from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as the ill-fated Lady Esketh. George Brent, who played Ransome, was similarly on loanout from Warner Bros., while other notables in the sprawling cast included Brenda Joyce, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Rambeau, H.B. Warner, Maria Ouspenkaya, Henry Travers and Jane Darwell.
Although the novel was harshly labeled by a later observer as "a potboiler that involved a natural disaster that would take any film production budget into the stratosphere,"@@@ Zanuck's investment in THE RAINS CAME paid off handsomely thanks to the attention to production detail -- all staged on the Fox lot without the benefit of a location shoot. The depiction of the earthquake and flood was convincingly created for frightening impact and netted the film the first-ever Oscar for Best Special Effects the following year.
Having such marquee draws as Power and Loy didn't hurt, although some critics, like Anderson, believed the deeper themes Bromfield explored in the novel were smothered by the romantic complications and portrayal of nature's fury. "Hollywood's choice of this book as the basis for a much-publicized specatacular production raised the old charges (against Bromfield) of commercialism, although the resulting distortions of emphasis in the motion picture had very little to do with the nature of the novel," Anderson concluded.#
Nevertheless, it was the first film to include Bromfield's name in five years, arousing some interest in his works by other studios. Making a permanent return to Ohio to establish his own agrarian utopia called Malabar Farm, the author was in need of additional sustenance and agreed to do some scenario work for Fox, providing the story for another Tyrone Power feature, BRIGHAM YOUNG. Lamar Trotti received credit on the final screenplay, upon which Zanuck spent $2.5 million to bring to the screen under Henry Hathaway's direction; unlike THE RAINS CAME, though, BRIGHAM YOUNG flopped following its premiere on Sept. 20, 1940. Audiences expecting Power in the lead were disappointed to find him in a decidedly secondary position to the then-lesser known Dean Jagger, whom Zanuck cast in the title role.
Bogart plays nightclub owner Chips Maguire who succeeds in placing the blame in the murder of a rival on an innocent employee, Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn), blackmailing the young man into hiding him at the boarding house operated by Tommy's mother and that of sardonic Sarah Jane Ryan (Sheridan). Passed off as a "nervous wreck" seeking solitude, Bogart's "Mr. Grasselli" eventually develops cabin fever and emerges from his room to find the house filled with talented boarders who stage shows in the parlor for their own amusement. He convinces everyone to turn the place into a night spot with a Gay '90s theme, which proves successful. Arrested by the police on opening night, Chips confesses to the slaying and takes the heat off Tommy, clearing the way for his courtship of Sarah Jane.
Although Anderson thought the original story weak, IT ALL CAME TRUE, released April 6, 1940, is amusing and benefits from Bogart's performance, which fell into his lap after the role had been turned down by George Raft and John Garfield, a pattern that eventually landed Bogart his more iconic roles in HIGH SIERRA (1940) and THE MALTESE FALCON (1941). Interestingly, the actor and Bromfield became friends, and Bogart's 1945 wedding to Lauren Bacall occurred at Malabar Farm.
Another WB star of the time, James Cagney, would then loom large in the Bromfield filmography, but not until after the talented actor-singer-dancer won the Best Actor Oscar for 1942 with his portrayal of George M. Cohan in the bright and brassy YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. But Cagney, a fiercely independent soul who had come to the studio in 1930, chafed under its control and had famously walked out on Warners several times, only to return at more money. But after winning the statuette, he went out on a limb to become his own producer, forming Cagney Productions with his brother William and arranging distribution through United Artists. The move anticipated more prominent action by stars of the '50s, such as Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, who created their own production outfits as the studio system crumbled around them.
The first Cagney-produced film, JOHNNY COME LATELY, directed by William K. Howard and released Sept. 3, 1943, was adapted from the Bromfield novella "McLeod's Folly," which had run in the Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and was also included in IT TAKES ALL KINDS. (World Publishing Co. issued it as a standalone volume in 1948). Playwright John Van Druten was credited with the script, which found Cagney as an itinerant newspaperman of the early 20th Century who comes to the aid of an embattled journal owner (Grace George) trying to rid the town of the corrupt politicians running the community.
Cagney, seeking an image change from the tough guy characterizations handed him by Warners, approached the role of Tom Richards in a light and agreeable manner as he charms the newspaper staff and uses his considerable skills to rout the less-than-threatening villains. Most critics are in agreement, however, that JOHNNY COME LATELY suffers greatly from a switchover to typical Cagney fare of the past where violence and jarringly-imposed action sequences ultimately resolve the plot. This change in pace negates the good work done by its star, Marjorie Main as a powerful saloon owner ally and by George (1879-1961), a noted stage actress whose only other screen appearance was in a silent feature produced 28 years prior to JOHNNY COME LATELY.
As Richard Schickel observed, concern must have been raised during production that this foray into whimsy by the star needed some of the old Cagney punch to attract his fans. "And so the film is wrenched around to fulfill their expectations, at whatever cost to carefully wrought mood, at whatever cost to the emotional logic of the film," he lamented.### Cagney Productions lasted for another four movies, and the actor was back under contract to WB by the end of the decade.
But the next screen version of a Bromfield work lacked what Schickel called the "frugal air" of independent production. None other than regal M-G-M and its celebrated emphasis on entertainment value offered the adaptation of his 1943 novel MRS. PARKINGTON to audiences on Oct. 12, 1944, with a cast headlined by Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in their fourth teaming as a married couple at the studio. Among those films was the war morale-builder MRS. MINIVER (1942), for which Garson, one of the newer leading actresses in the Metro galaxy, won the Oscar for Best Actress.MRS. PARKINGTON told the story of Susie Parkington, who rose from life in a 19th Century Nevada boom town boarding house to New York's society row and wealth beyond her dreams, thanks to her marriage to charming, reckless yet savvy Maj. Augustus Parkington. Later in life and now the matriarch of her troubled offspring, Susie's experience and wisdom leads them to some kind of resolution of their problems. Susie Parkington is the premier example of the strong woman that peppered most of Bromfield's stories, as in THE LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS, and the most memorable thanks to the success of the novel and its movie version.
Robert Thoeren and Polly James authored the screenplay that was directed by Tay Garnett, who by then had two decades' worth of cinema experience under his belt, and who had to his credit two notable Metro productions of 1943, BATAAN and THE CROSS OF LORRAINE. As Susie (Garson) in her dotage relates her experiences in the rough-and-tumble western town and her romance with Major Parkington (Pidgeon), Garnett's eye for incident and mood enhances the tale's telling, carrying the viewer over to the latter-day complications posed to Susie by her family. The story was also acted out by a top-notch supporting cast that included Edward Arnold, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway and Dan Duryea.
After viewing the film, Bromfield sent Garnett an inscribed copy of the novel for staying true to his conception of Susie. "She's one of my favorite people and I'm grateful to you for having captured her essence and for having embellished it," Bromfield wrote. "This is something for which an author must be deeply grateful."
"Usually an author is deeply offended by what a director has done to his resplendent masterpiece, so praise from Bromfield was the cherry in the Manhattan," Garnett later commented.% The reception accorded MRS. PARKINGTON led to a re-teaming of Garnett and Garson in the somewhat similar (but more soapy) VALLEY OF DECISION (1945).
The last film to bear Bromfield as a source was THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, a Fox remake of THE RAINS CAME, only now in color and Cinemascope. A Christmas season attraction of 1955, its release occurred only months prior to the author's death and did little in return for his literary reputation of the time, which had become entirely non-fictional. THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR featured Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Fred MacMurray and Joan Caulfield under the direction of Jean Negulesco, working from a script by Merle Miller.
IV.
While Hollywood's interest in Bromfield was no doubt financially rewarding for both, it was artistically lacking from the standpoint of admirers of his work who embraced the philosophy he sought to express. The film version of THE RAINS CAME was close in story to the novel, which often suffers in translation to the screen, but bypassed the author's examination of nation-building by individuals dedicated to their task, and others who merely exploit such development for their own ends. Yet the film version is grand entertainment on its own level, its special effects still breathtaking in depicting the disaster that befalls Ranchipur and its denizens. The production provided further evidence that 1939, the year of the film's release, was Hollywood's high water mark in quality.
THE RAINS CAME is considered in the upper rank of Bromfield's considerable output, despite criticism of it as "warmed-over Maugham without the first-hand insight, wry comment, and experience of the British teller of tales"%% and the cries of commercial sellout that critics began hurling at Bromfield after the luster of his early novels wore off. Although those works were overlooked as film material, they helped establish Bromfield as a name, one that aided marketing of a 24 HOURS or NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, or even a JOHNNY COME LATELY, simply because they were drawn from his works. It was a brand that spoke to reader enjoyment, a pleasure that moviegoers looked to find at their local bijou as well.
* Anderson, LOUIS BROMFIELD, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1964, p. 171.
** Maltin, ed., LEONARD MALTIN'S CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE, New York: Plume Books, 2005, p. 410.
*** Maltin, p. 395.
@ Brooks, LULU IN HOLLYWOOD, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983, p. 99.
@@ Anderson, p. 63.
@@@ Fred Lawrence Guiles, TYRONE POWER: THE LAST IDOL, New York: Berkley Books, 1980, p. 111.
# Anderson, p. 110.
## B.R. Crisler, quoted in Alan G. Barbour, PYRAMID ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE MOVIES: HUMPHREY BOGART, New York: Pyramid Publications, 1973, p. 69.
### Schickel, JAMES CAGNEY, New York: Applause Books, 1999, p. 130.
% Garnett, with Fredda Dudley Balling, LIGHT YOUR TORCHES AND PULL UP YOUR TIGHTS, New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1973, p. 261.
%% Guiles, p. 111.
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