I am enjoying the films associated with TCM’s Star of the Month for March, Ann Sothern. Every Wednesday night, TCM will air a number of Sothern movies, totaling 35 in all. Though primarily b-movies or series, these titles are delightful precisely because they are b-movies. Often, the b’s are completely dependent on the charms of the stars to overcome the simplistic storylines, mediocre songs, and limited sets. Sothern enlivened many a film because of her sassy persona and stylish look, particularly romantic comedies.
Among the films selected are five that Sothern made during the Depression with forgotten leading man Gene Raymond. In the 1930s, the use of romantic teams became a casting strategy for studios, a practice they continued throughout the Golden Age. A successful pairing generated twice the box office because fans of the individual actors as well as devotees of the romantic team came to see the films. Today’s classic-movie lovers are familiar with the most famous movie couples—Astaire and Rogers, Tracy and Hepburn, Bogart and Bacall, Powell and Loy—while dozens of other romantic teams have long since been forgotten.
Born Raymond Guion, Gene Raymond had been a child actor on the stage. He appeared in stock and Broadway productions throughout the 1920s, including a two-year stint in The Cradle Snatchers opposite Humphrey Bogart and Edna May Oliver. The actor ended up in Hollywood during the early sound era when the studios habitually raided Broadway for stage-trained actors. Though Raymond appeared in a variety of A-budget films opposite prominent stars, his presence never registered with me because I associated him with the Sothern vehicles. Recently, I was surprised to discover that he was Mary Astor’s cuckolded husband in Red Dust.
RAYMOND COSTARRED AS MARY ASTOR’S HUSBAND, WHO PALES IN COMPARISON TO CLARK GABLE.
Sothern and Raymond were introduced as a pair in 1935 when Columbia lent Sothern to RKO for Hooray for Love (airing March 18). The following year, Sothern requested a release from her contract because she felt the roles she had been given lacked substance. She signed with RKO in the hopes of appearing in more challenging films, but the studio cast her opposite Raymond again for Walking on Air (also airing March 18). Later that year, she was reteamed with Raymond for Smartest Girl in Town. In 1937, the pair made There Goes My Girl and She’s Got Everything. (Smartest, Girl, and Everything aired on March 4.)
Hooray for Love is typical of the films they made together. Generally, one of the characters has money, and the other does not, which drives the storyline and complicates their relationship. In Hooray for Love, Sothern plays singer Pat Thatcher, who needs financial backing for her Broadway revue. Her father convinces Raymond’s character, Doug, to invest his small inheritance into the show, and it doesn’t take long for Doug and Pat to fall in love. In Walking on Air, Sothern stars as Kit, the spoiled daughter of wealthy Horace Bennett. Kit wants to marry playboy Fred Randolph, but Horace believes Fred to be a fortune hunter so he refuses to allow his headstrong daughter to see him. Kit devises a plan to make Fred seem like the perfect candidate for marriage—a plan based on masquerade. Disguised identity is also a frequent story element in the Sothern-Raymond films; actually, money and masquerade are common plot devices in many romantic comedies from the Depression era. In Walking on Air, Raymond plays Pete Quinlan who meets Kit while auditioning for a radio program. Kit hires him to pretend to be phony French nobleman Count Pierre Louis de Marsac and to court her. The idea is for the Count to act so rude, obnoxious, and intolerable that Horace and his matronly sister, Evelyn, will actually prefer Fred. Again, it doesn’t take long before Sothern and Raymond (as Pete and Kit) fall in love.
RAYMOND CROONS “MAKE A WISH” IN ‘WALKING ON AIR.’
Publicity and promotion were generated to encourage newspapers, magazines, and fanzines to recognize Sothern and Raymond as a romantic team, and by 1938, their identity as a screen couple had been secured. A column syndicated in newspapers in February 1938 called them a “new team of motion picture sweethearts.” A review of There Goes My Girl the following summer noted, “The two stars have won a notable following with their previous team vehicles.” Raymond’s version of the romantic lead played into his blond, wholesome good looks; he was courteous, thoughtful, and optimistic—a thoroughly likable, all-American guy next door. Sothern’s chic, assured persona and her ability to toss out a snappy comeback complemented Raymond’s unworldly, guileless characters.
The Sothern-Raymond pairing was short-lived, however, as Sothern, in her quest for better material, moved to MGM the very year the romantic team began to get so much publicity. In 1938, MGM cast her in Maisie, a comedy about a fast-talking, wise-cracking Brooklyn chorus girl. The film led to a new series of low-budget but entertaining films, ten of which air on TCM on March 11. In later years, Sothern lamented that she rarely escaped b-films, movie series, and light-hearted carefree roles, but, like other bona fide movie stars, she elevated the material through her screen persona and performance.
HELEN BRODERICK AND ANN SOTHERN IN ‘SHE’S GOT EVERYTHING’
After his series with Sothern was over, Raymond appeared in a number of classic films in secondary roles. He costarred as the friend Carole Lombard uses to make Robert Montgomery jealous in Alfred Hitchcock’s only romantic comedy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. And, he appeared in one of my favorite film noirs, The Locket, as the dupe Laraine Day is going to marry before Brian Aherne spills the beans about her true identity.
SOTHERN AS MAISIE RAVIER
Later, both Sothern and Raymond extended their careers by embracing television. When I was a little girl, I became a fan of Sothern when I discovered Private Secretary, a comedy series that was still in syndication years after its original run (1953-1957). Sothern also coproduced the show, which was shot on 35mm film—both suggestions from her savvy friend Lucille Ball. She also starred in The Ann Sothern Show and provided the voice of the titular vehicle in My Mother the Car. Raymond hosted an anthology series during the 1950s and appeared in episodic television for many years.
In 1964, Sothern and Raymond appeared in the political drama The Best Man, though I would not say they were “reunited.” According to Robert Osborne, who introduced three of the Sothern-Raymond films on March 4, the two were never thrilled with working together.