Sa dernière chance

In 1937 Darryl Zanuck, who had recently moved from head of production at Warner Brothers, was trying to get his newly created company, 20th Century Fox off the ground and on a level playing field with his old bosses at Warners and the glitter palace at MGM. "This Is My Affair" was an attempt to cash in on the current success of historical films set around the turn of the century ("San Francisco" "In Old Chicago")and in retrospect he succeeded quite mightily. The plot is fascinating. A trouble maker but heroic naval officer (Robert Taylor) is given a secret assignment by President McKinley to uncover a ring of bank robbers that are paralyzing American finance. He finds the gang but falls in love with their female mascot (Barbara Stanwyck) and must decide between love and duty.

Not everything about this vintage film works well, but overall it is a good slice of studio film-making. The plot gimmick would be borrowed by Kurt Vonnegut for "Mother Night" (the lead role of that film of the book was played brilliantly by Nick Nolte) and seems quite believable, at least within the confides of studio make believe. As a fan of old movies I am always thrilled when I stumble upon one that I have never seen and "This is my Affair" was no exception.

Years before Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck were married, they made a couple of films together: His Brother's Wife and This Is My Affair. If you're looking for cute chemistry, rent the 1937 movie, because the first film they made together isn't particularly romantic.

In this one, Robert Taylor gets sent on a secret undercover mission by President McKinley to help catch bank robbers. It sounds like an extremely lame plot, and while no one would ever accuse this movie of turning into a classic, if you want to see an acting couple who eventually got married, you can rent it. Bob goes undercover, with only a secret symbol to write on his letters as proof that the president is on his side, and along the way falls in love with nightclub singer Barbara Stanwyck.

One of the fun parts of the movie, besides seeing the lovebirds together, is Sidney Blackmer's Theodore Roosevelt impression. He's very entertaining, and the script includes several of the President's famous quotes to make audiences chuckle.

1937's "This is My Affair" is remembered as the only costarring effort for lovebirds Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck (they wed in 1939), a diverting espionage tale if a tad overlong (working titles included "Living Dangerously," "Private Enemy," "The McKinley Case," "The Turn of the Century," and even "My Affair"). Taylor's Richard Perry is asked by President William McKinley to work undercover infiltrating a tricky band of bank robbers led by Batiste Duryea (Brian Donlevy), who miraculously avoid leaving any clues behind for the Secret Service. Perry allows himself to be charged for murder to get on the good side of prankster Jock Ramsey (Victor McLaglen), but his activities are frowned upon by pretty chanteuse Lil Duryea (Barbara Stanwyck), younger sister of mastermind Batiste. A terrific cast buoys this one considerably, with John Carradine in for one extended sequence as Ed, unassuming pigeon for Ramsey's tricks, and an unbilled Lon Chaney spotted as an FBI agent at the 72 minute mark, with a single line in a Baltimore bank: "this one's dead as a mackerel!" By an ironic twist of fate, Chaney and Carradine would both go on to enjoy parallel careers in the horror genre, here cast in the same film for the very first time, 12 more to follow until 1967's "Hillbillys in a Haunted House."

1937's "This is My Affair" could have been better but as it is, barely gets by. Robert Taylor stars as a Navy lieutenant who is asked by President McKinley to get the name of the men robbing banks all over the country, and his mission is to be kept secret between the two of them. Taylor infiltrates the gang by becoming a criminal himself. He meets the dumb, big practical joker (Victor McLaglen) and the brains (Brian Donlevy) - but there's a head name, whose name he can't get. McLaglen has it bad for Donlevy's half-sister, a saloon singer (Stanwyck) with whom Taylor falls in love.

The premise isn't bad if you can suspend your imagination, and the end is fairly tense, but "This is My Affair" just isn't a well-made or well-thought out film. First of all, Stanwyck was one of the most versatile and multi-talented actresses in Hollywood, but singing wasn't her greatest talent. In fact, she couldn't sing, with the exception of "Take it Off the E String (Play it on the G String) in "Lady of Burlesque" and a little number in "Banjo on my Knee" that can't count as singing. Her outfits were from the Mae West School of Design and overpowered her tiny frame.

Then there is the awful scene with Theodore Roosevelt where he invents the phrase, "Speak softly but carry a big stick" - embarrassing. Taylor slugs through it professionally, but why did makeup people always slather so much pancake and eye shadow on him? This is a 20th Century Fox film, by the way, not MGM, Taylor's usual studio, but MGM did it too. Fox never made Tyrone Power up like that with the exception of "Lloyds of London." Taylor was a handsome, rugged man. I guess they couldn't leave his face alone. Victor McLaglen isn't very good, but Donlevy, in a usual-type role for him, does a good job.

It is a chance to see the two married stars work together.

Did anyone watching this movie wonder if President McKinley got assassinated, because of his secret attempt to unmask one of his confidantes as the kingpin of a crime syndicate? It's a question that was left unexplored here, because, I take it, Americans of the thirties never saw the event as anything but the act of a lone fanatic instead of as a conspiracy. After all, audiences were still recovering from the aftermath of a Depression, and the movies of the time were more concerned with stamping out the Little Caesars and Duke Santees of the day than uncovering political corruption. Allan Rivkin ("The Farmer's Daughter") wrote an interesting story about a naval officer (Robert Taylor) who, in secret correspondence with McKinley, uncovers the linchpin behind a wave of bank robberies in the upper Midwest centered in, of all places, St. Paul, Minnesota. The screenplay gets sanctimonious in the hands of Lamar Trotti, and the script did not inspire William Seiter to more imaginative heights. Brian Donlevy plays the crime boss with his usual menace, while Barbara Stanwyck (of all people) as his half-sister is made to sing (She's barely on-key, like Marlene Dietrich in "The Blue Angel.") and wear big, floppy hats--even in her stage act. The only one I've ever seen on screen who could pull off wearing headgear like these is Mae West, and she was at least in on the joke. Stanwyck, on the other hand, is forced to be unswervingly sincere throughout. Her character Lil and the officer idle on Lake Como and get serious about each other, much to the dismay of Victor MacLaglen who's Donlevy's sidekick, prone to playing practical jokes, and thinks he has it in with her. The acting is uniformly bad; I guess Stanwyck and Taylor were too much in love at the time to care. The story deserved better than this. A secret only you and the President share you would think should take precedence over run-of-the mill movie romance. Unless it involves a cigar and a stained dress...