Day 2 and I’m still here! Not gving up! Great! And what a lovely day to spend with the one and only Ruth Hussey!
Tender Comrade (1943)
Yesterday I mentioned blacklist in passing while talking about Blockade. And now – Tender Comrade. I mean, the title alone. And it’s written by Dalton Trumbo!
Ginger Rogers is married to a soldier. They love each other a lot and the film manages to convey that in the very first ten minutes of the story and then the husband has to leave and we feel genuinely bad because we know Ginger is very sad. We further explore their relationship in flashbacks throughout the film.
She works in an aircraft factory, among other women. And one of those women is the heroine of today Ruth Hussey. And immediately we know what kind of character we are dealing with here. I mean, her first word in the film is „hangover”.
During lunch Ginger, Ruth, Patricia Collinge, and Kim Hunter realize that they pay way too much for their tiny apartments and decide to start living in a house together. They are going to share their things and support each other and „run the house like a democracy”. And I know what you’re thinking – communism!
Ruth Hussey is probably the least emotionally vulnerable of the four (at least on the outside) but she still has her charm. She is witty and sarcastic.
At one point the women realize they hate cleaning up and are too tired after work so they hire a maid. The maid turns out to be a German woman and Trumbo must have loved writing her lines. At one point she says that at one point they had democracy in Germany, too. „You lost it?”asks one of the women to which the German replies „No, we let it get murdered”. Later Ruth is saying how tired she is of war effort and how she wishes they would not have involved themselves in the fight at all. Ginger says „this kind of talk comes straight from Berlin”.
It is not a subtle film at all but I did enjoy it a lot and I love the idea of a house full of women (reminds me of another Ginger Rogers favourite, Stage Door). And it did make me a bit emotional.
I, Jane Doe (1948)
The next film involves the war as well but in a completely different way.
It starts with an earthquake – a homicide. The killer was caught red-handed. And SHE won’t say her name.
Ruth Hussey plays the widow of the murdered man. Vera Ralston plays Jane Doe who is found guilty and faces electric chair. Her death is postponed, though, after it is found that she is pregnant. And Ruth actually feels bad for her so she visits her in the hospital after she had her baby. And while Jane Doe wanted to die, once she holds her baby she now „has something to live” so there is a breakthrough and she starts talking. And since Ruth is a lawyer, she wants to get a new trial to prove Jane Doe is innocent.
The film is very melodramatic and a bit ridiculous but it is a fun watch. I am not loving the whole “depression and PTSD cured by becoming a mother” thing but I’ll try to not get too judgmental.
Ruth is very toned-down, calm here, pretty much until the finale which I won’t spoil.
It’s interesting that yesterday I watched a political film that could cause its writer troubles during the blacklist (Blockade) followed by a courtroom drama (Young Mr. Lincoln). And today, it worked out the same way.
The Great Gatsby (1949)
Everyone knows The Great Gatsby very well. Ruth plays Jordan. She is barely on the screen here. I enjoyed Alan Ladd’s Gatsby but the film felt very modest and quite bland. Little of Gatsby’s famous extravagance is left. But it does not matter because it includes this iconic scene.
The Facts of Life (1960)
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope are both bored of the same old routine of their married lives. They are both married, not to each other, to different people, Bob to Ruth, and they are friends. One time when they were meant to go on holiday together, both Lucille’s husband and Ruth can’t go but they insist Lucille and Bob still go. They are not too happy about that at first but gradually seem to start enjoying each other’s company. Soon they fall in love.
Ruth Hussey does not have a lot to do in the film but she seems like a perfectly nice woman. I hate this trope of cheaters whose partners do not get developed as characters at all. But I guess it’s better when they are presented as terrible people for no reason (I have a lot of feelings about this, I might write a post).
The ending actually feels earned although possibly problematic (as in, posing a problems worth thinking about, not in the Tumblr sense). Too bad I did not get more Ruth Hussey at the end of her day.
It’s very late and I still have things to do so I’ll end here. Tomorrow is going to be interesting…
Swingin' at the Seance 