The 1942 comedy/drama from 20th Century Fox, LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY, stars Monty Woolley. It's not a full-through Christmas story like his 1942 Warner Bros comedy, THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, and his 1947 Christmas fantasy film, THE BISHOP'S WIFE, starring Cary Grant as a visiting angel. Nevertheless, LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY begins with "Jingle Bells" playing underneath a wide shot of the Manhattan skyline followed by a medium close-up of a sidewalk Santa ringing a bell outside of Marcy Herald Square department store. Monty Woolley, also dressed as a Santa approaches the other one and bellows, "I can't remember when I've seen anything more revolting."
Woolley is Madden Thomas, a once-famous stage actor now working as a department store Santa inside Marcy's Department Store. On his Santa chair, he's attracted a crowd of shoppers who are laughing as he holds court. Why? Because he hit a local bar before duty, he's fairly well smashed and he's spouting off un-Santa-like wisecracks. It's Christmas Eve and, of course, he gets fired. Madden returns to his boarding house apartment on 49th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. That's in the theatre district. He lives in that humble apartment with his long-suffering, extremely tolerant, 20-something daughter played by Ida Lupino.
The daughter, Kathi, has basically become the parent to her widower dad who drinks too much and acts like an unruly child when he's drunk. Kathi has a leg impairment. In a non-pitiful way, she feels the impairment may keep her from finding love. She still believes in her father's acting gifts -- if only he could discipline himself. Kathi is a lovely young woman of "intelligence, understanding and sympathy," but so much of her life has gone into taking care of him after his loopy drunken shenanigans.
Also in the boarding house lives a handsome young composer played by Cornel Wilde. He likes Kathi and he's fully aware of her father's reputation onstage and off. Madden Thomas didn't retire. He drank himself out of steady theatrical employment. On New Year's Day, the composer tells Kathi he's got a job opportunity for her dad. However, he asks "How much does your father drink these days?"
We go through September. The composer falls in love with Kathi and she has the chance to live her own life. But she's impaired by her father's neediness. She yearns for him to return to the stage and feel the thrill of "that magic hour" again. That magic hour, in the theatre, is 8:30 at night when the curtain goes up.
When Kathi is offered the chance to get married, Madden is offered the chance to make a comeback on Broadway as the lead in a production of KING LEAR. Involved in the production is a semi-retired, financially comfortable actress who loved Madden and put up with all his nonsense. She still loves him and gives that news to Kathi. The middle-aged former actress is the aunt of the composer, the man who wants to marry Kathi. Will Madden Thomas pull it together and thrill audiences as King Lear? Will he free loyal Kathi to move on with her life?
One of the highlights of this film is the delicate, mature performance Ida Lupino delivers as Kathi. She doesn't try to tug at your heartstrings because she's called "crippled." She's straight-forward and strong. The other highlight is Sara Allgood as the former actress who can volley back some choice funny insults to Madden Thomas after he whacks some at her.
Sara Allgood played the mother in HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, the longtime serious maid in the Lubitsch comedy, CLUNY BROWN, and Mrs. Morton, the jailhouse matron in ROXIE HART. Her role as Aunt Alma in LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY is probably the most glamorous one of her film career at that time. She is dolled up in sophisticated high fashion clothing in every scene she has. It's fabulous to see Sara Allgood look so ritzy.
You may be able to find LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY on YouTube. Watch the chemistry between Monty Woolley and Ida Lupino in this movie. As we know, Bette Davis was Queen of the Warner Bros lot in the late 1930s/early 40s. Monty Woolley was a hit in the Broadway production of THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. Warner Bros, as it did a lot in those days, scooped up the hit comedy play's rights and gave the lead role of the faithful personal secretary to Woolley's famous yet overbearing character to Bette. After doing a string of dramas, she and the studio felt it was time for her to do a lighter role.
If Bette Davis had been unable to play Maggie in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, I think Ida Lupino would've been just fine in the role.
LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY was based on a play by Emlyn Williams. He also wrote NIGHT MUST FALL and THE CORN IS GREEN, two dramatic plays later made into movies.
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