The Old Fashioned Way (1934) W. C. Fields

[marcapra]

If you haven't seen this superb W. C. Field's comedy, you should see it. It is set at the turn of the 19th century and has much old fashioned music in it. There are tunes I recognize like the waltz "After the Ball is Over", as well as songs I don't recognize. In the credits, I saw that the songs were written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel presumably in 1934. But they did such a good job that the songs like the ones that follow here sound authentically 1900 era. The excellent tenor is actor Joe Morrison. Is no. 3 a real old fashioned song? Sounds like one of Edison's favored "heart songs". See if you agree:

1. The Seashell Song at 6:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvHn4_8n78

2. Rolling in Love at 5:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3tISeS ... AF&index=4

3. A Little Bit of Heaven Known as Mother at 4:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFXOd0h ... 1bF1AmV6AF

[estott]

"Gathering up the Shells from the Seashore" dates from 1874 and was written by Will Thompson

The other two songs were written for the film

[Henry]

"The Old Fashioned Way" is my favorite Fields film, and in many ways I think it is the best one he made. It is an authentic record of an early 20th century touring company's life on the road, the sort of life that he knew well because he lived it, and it has many of Fields' best sight gags and dialogue. A valuable bonus tacked on at the very end is his juggling act, the most complete record on film of his skillful mastery . Fields began as a "tramp" juggler in and around his native Philadelphia area (actually he was born in Darby, PA, just over the city line in Chester County, reachable today on the Rt. 11 and 13 streetcar). In this role he was mute, as he believed it would give the act broader appeal not dependent on language, and indeed he had great success in England (his father was an English immigrant) and on the Continent, especially Germany. He was involved with Flo Ziegfeld's "Follies" in New York, and made early silent films there before moving to Hollywood and the "talkies." "The Old Fashioned Way" captures Fields just at the end of his physical prime and before he utterly destroyed his life with alcohol (his depiction of this habit on film is no act, sadly). He was a very funny man, in the tradition of Mark Twain. Most of his surviving films are now available on DVD.

BTW, contrary to popular misconception, he did not dislike Philadelphia. There are many fond references, some of them quite subtle, to his Pennsylvania origins in his films*. The correct reading of his oft-misquoted epitaph is "I'd rather be living in Philadelphia."
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*Early in "The Old Fashioned Way," he says, "When I was playing Mahoney City, up in P- [breaks off, interrupted]." This is a reference to Mahanoy City "up in Pennsylvania," a town in the anthracite region. Note the similarity of the spelling---"Mahoney" vs. "Mahanoy" (pronounced ma-ha-noy," letter "a" rhymes with the "a" in "has". Locals sometimes give it the hard "h," so it comes out sounding something like "Mackanoy." Auslanders sometimes mispronounce "Mahanoy" as "Mahoney," but Fields knew better; this is just his little jab).

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More on the music in the movie:
-Opening credits: "When You and I Were Young, Maggie," segue to "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon" (note moon graphics behind credits!)
-Juggling act: Prelude to Act III of Wagner's "Lohengrin" (brief intro.), "Skaters' Waltz," "Yankee Doodle" (brief), "Comin' through the Rye"
-Closing credits: reprise of "A Little Bit of Heaven Known as Mother," segue to "Rolling in Love" (up tempo)

[marcapra]

Thanks Estott and Henry for that hard to find information! I wonder if the Seashell Song was ever recorded for disc or cylinder records before this movie, or was it a forgotten song of the past? It sounds so authentically 19th century that I didn't think Mack Gordon could have written it in 1934. According to Estott, I was right. I noticed that in the movie, they made some changes to the lyrics which, I think, improve the song a bit. Also the original song lyric is a male singing to his lost love Maud and there is a Youtube video of a male singer singing the song in a very slow, sad way. but in the movie the song is upbeat and is sung by a woman to her "Willy".

Speaking of W. C. Fields' films, many of them have only been released in recent years. One of them, almost no one ever mentions is "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch", in which W. C. Fields plays an eligible bachelor that Zazu Pitts picks out of a marriage catalog. The movie was remade in 1942 with Hugh Herbert in the W. C. Fields role.

[Henry]

In the Fields movie, the singer is Jan Duggan (in the role of Cleopatra Pepperday), and she does a brilliant and hilarious rendition, complete with terrific hand gestures. It should be noted that this is a live performance, not a lip-synched dubbing. The pianist (actress Dorothy Bay) is perfectly in time, with her hands on the correct notes on the keyboard. She's actually playing, as Duggan is actually singing. You just can't fake (dub) that kind of accuracy.

[estott]

In the Fields movie, the singer is Jan Duggan (in the role of Cleopatra Pepperday), and she does a brilliant and hilarious rendition, complete with terrific hand gestures. It should be noted that this is a live performance, not a lip-synched dubbing. The pianist (actress Dorothy Bay) is perfectly in time, with her hands on the correct notes on the keyboard. She's actually playing, as Duggan is actually singing. You just can't fake (dub) that kind of accuracy.

This was her first movie- she was acting in a theatrical parody of the melodrama "The Drunkard" (It is a real play) and Fields put her and most of the cast into the film. This song was one of her specialties.

[Henry]

Yep, she was in five Fields movies: this one, "Mississippi" (1935), "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" (1939), "My Little Chickadee" and "The Bank Dick" (both 1940). IMO, probably the funniest actress in Fields' movies after former MET contralto Kathleen Howard, who had larger roles (but in fewer movies). Fellow Philadelphian Elise Cavanna was also effective in her small roles.

[marcapra]

Yes, Duggan is genuinely funny, whereas Kathleen Howard is just a hen-pecking scold. I didn't realize that Duggan was in other Fields movies, but now that I think of it, she is the one who gets Fields' ping pong ball hit into her mouth in "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man". I thought Joe Morrison and the pretty woman who plays Fields' daughter were very good too, but I never saw either of them in another film.

[estott]

Yes, Duggan is genuinely funny, whereas Kathleen Howard is just a hen-pecking scold. I didn't realize that Duggan was in other Fields movies, but now that I think of it, she is the one who gets Fields' ping pong ball hit into her mouth in "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man". I thought Joe Morrison and the pretty woman who plays Fields' daughter were very good too, but I never saw either of them in another film.

Morrison was in a few other films, but he was mostly a radio singer. Judith Allen seems to have been in a lot of westerns.

[Henry]

Yes, Duggan is genuinely funny, whereas Kathleen Howard is just a hen-pecking scold.

Yes, precisely---that's why I think she's funny. Something about the comic exaggeration of her haughty indignation gets to me. Example: the hilarious scene at the breakfast table in "Man on the Flying Trapeze," when she reads "another of those delightful fragments by Gertrude Smuden," an obvious reference to Gertrude Stein: "We have what we have not, and what we have not, we have. Up is down, and down---are you listening?" "[chewing mouthful of toast]"Yes, dear." "---and down is out," etc. etc. She was the perfect comic foil of a spouse for his unique brand of "hen-pecked husband" humor. BTW, Fields movies often used character names that were actual ones familiar to him from his youth, like Smuden, McGonigle, Wolfinger, etc.