Mr Blue -- October 4, 2018

Today is the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.

I wish someone would make a movie out of the novel Mr Blue by Myles Connolly.  I first heard about it when I read Frank Capra's The Name Above the Title.  I found a copy and enjoyed it.  I have read it several times.  The protagonist, J Blue, has much in common with Saint Francis.

Connolly went to Hollywood, invited by friend Joseph Kennedy.  Connolly became a screenwriter and producer.  He worked on the scripts for Capra's Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe.  He was associate producer of Half Shot at Sunrise and Hook Line and Sinker with Wheeler and Woolsey.

Half Shot at Sunrise -- August 22, 2014

Photoplay, November, 1930.

 

Service comedies set during World War One became quite popular during the 1920s, after the success of What Price Glory on stage and screen.  Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a popular team in the late 1920s and into the 1930s.  Some people can't stand them.  Cute Dorothy Lee was their frequent costar.  "...park the grouch and toddle to wherever they're showing 'Half Shot at Sunrise.'  It's one of the most absurdly ridiculous, nonsensical messpots of assorted comedy that ever was cooked up from celluloid."  Messpots -- that is a good word.