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Rebels at the Typewriter on the Criterion Channel

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The ever-valuable Criterion Channel added some fantastic new films to stream in September—including a curated group of special interest to 1930s Hollywood buffs. Rebels at the Typewriter: Women Screenwriters of the 1930s looks at the contributions of Frances Marion, Anita Loos and many unsung women who wrote a multitude of entertaining and thought-provoking novels and movies of that era. I’ll let the folks at Criterion fill in the details:  The 1930s were a golden age for women writers, who penned some of the most outrageous provocations of the pre-Code era and created memorable, true-to-life female characters for the period’s reigning stars. While writers like renowned humorist Anita Loos (RED-HEADED WOMAN) and two-time Academy Award winner Frances Marion (DINNER AT EIGHT) have been justly celebrated, others like the prolific Jane Murfin (WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?), best-selling novelist turned screenwriter Viña Delmar (MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW), and pioneering writer-director Wanda Tucho
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Where It All Began

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Picture it: Hollywood, California, sometime in 1997. I'm a tourist on my first trip to the iconic Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. Me and my boyfriend take a detour into a little autograph and memorabilia store called STARWORLD. Although they have an impressive array of signed, framed photos on the walls, my eye is drawn to a little box on the floor marked “Clearance.” I crouch down and leaf through the glossy 8 by 10s in the box, seeing a bunch of has-beens, never was-es and forgotten child actors from the ’70s and ’80s. Near the bottom, however, I spy a diamond in the rough—an autograph from my favorite “dumb blonde” of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Joyce Compton. In the photo, she is wearing a chiffon dress with a spray of fake lilacs on the bodice, a lacy negligee partically obscured by sheer layers of gown fabric. Joyce’s curly handwriting matches her blonde hair, and it matched the images I recalled from old movies—cute and bubbly. Priced at seven dollars, it became my first
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Publicity Photo: The Gift Horse

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Here's a fun old publicity photo I came across: in 1952, Joyce starred with Bob Paige and Ruth Warrick in an episode of NBC's drama anthology Fireside Theater entitled "The Gift Horse." As the press copy on the back of the photo states, the show was pre-filmed, which was unusual in the early days of television. Joyce was cast as a temptress coming between married couple Paige and Warrick. Note that this photo was put out by Compton Advertising Inc., an agency which otherwise had nothing to do with our Joyce. Although Fireside Theater ran for seven seasons in 1949-55, most of the episodes (including "The Gift Horse") are lost or unavailable for viewing due to copyright issues.
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Joyce, Timeless Beauty

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Here's a lovely circa 1936 portrait of Joyce Compton that has been sitting on my computer's desktop for the past year (!). As with many actresses who are often remembered for broad, daffy comedy roles, it's easy to overlook what a beauty she was.
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Joyce at Lake Arrowhead

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Snapshot of Joyce vacationing at California's Lake Arrowhead in the 1940s, photographer unknown.
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Joyce in Ellis Island (1936)

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Here's how I described Ellis Island at my weblog, Scrubbles.net : Another cruddy 1930s b-movie which would have otherwise gone past my radar, had Joyce Compton not co-starred. This had something to do with gangsters and a dopey pair of Ellis Island employees who uncover their dirty deeds, but it didn’t hold my interest whenever Joyce (tiny role as the nurse girlfriend of one of the dopes) wasn’t on screen – which wasn’t too often! The dull, often incomprehensible Ellis Island found Joyce working at yet another poverty row studio (Invincible Pictures), playing yet another thankless part as the goofy sidekick's girlfriend. She doesn't appear in too many scenes (and looks rather distracted when she does). Probably the best thing about this incompetently made trifle is that it's very short - 67 minutes. Even at that brief length, this plodding flick still seems like it's about an hour too long! Like many of Joyce's other films, Ellis Island has slipped into
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Joyce in Murder with Pictures (1936)

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Joyce Compton's career in the mid- to late-1930s seemed to alternate between leads in poverty row productions and supporting parts in b-movies from the big studios (With a few bit parts thrown in. Why? Only Joyce herself could tell you.) Among the big studio efforts she appeared in was 1936's Murder with Pictures , a cliché-ridden comedy/mystery from Paramount starring a too-smirky Lew Ayres (above left) as a newspaper photographer who enjoys outpacing the police on various hot cases. He winds up becoming part of the story he’s covering when an alluring mystery lady (Gail Patrick, below left) enters his apartment seeking shelter from the pursuing authorities. The woman is a murder suspect, wrongly accused and desperate to clear her name. Ayres winds up helping her AND coming up with the incriminating photograph that proves who the real killer is. A rather silly, slight film that (at the very least) moves along at a brisk pace and has a glossy production unusual for a b-pictur
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