From MGM
Screenplay by John Lee Mahin
and James Edward Grant
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Starring
Robert Taylor
Lana Turner
Edward Arnold
Van Heflin
Robert Sterling
Barry Nelson
Paul Stewart
Patricia Dane
Glenda Farrell
Cy Kendall
After the success of Waterloo Bridge, its director, star and studio, Mervyn LeRoy, Robert Taylor and MGM, were looking for another project on which to hang their hats. LeRoy had recently come to the studio as head of production and needed to continue presenting himself as a force. Taylor, as we've outlined several times, was one of two of MGM's most popular male stars but had an image problem he didn't like. He wanted to butch it up.
Taylor was convinced that he needed to play more bad guy roles. He had done some and would do many more in the future but as Johnny Eager he became an actor to reckon with in the villain department.
LeRoy and MGM had something else up their sleeves. Both wanted to cast Lana Turner as the female lead because they were convinced she and Taylor would bring in the big bucks. What a stunning pair they were.
He plays a ruthless racketeer who is fooling his parole officer into thinking he is a cabbie. Actually, his thuggery is worse than ever and he desperately wants to open a dog-racing track, already constructed and ready to go, but he is being hampered by the crusading district attorney (Edward Arnold) who put Johnny behind bars in the first place.
Turner plays a sociology student (try to stifle a giggle at how glamorous she looks) who meets Johnny and immediately falls for him. He thinks she's a knockout but he has no time for a relationship including the one he currently has with a woman (Patricia Dane) he's only using.
Johnny, with his sharp tongue and hard shell, doesn't seem to have a decent bone in his body. He admits that he thinks love is for suckers as is decency and doing the right thing. He almost falls off his high horse when he finds out that Turner is the district attorney's daughter. He hatches a plan.
He gaslights Turner into thinking she has killed one of his goons (Paul Stewart) as the two men are in a fight. The setup is so he can get leverage over Arnold. Johnny will keep his mouth shut about the murder if Arnold will allow the dog track to open.
Johnny's consigliere is Van Heflin, an intellectual drunk who uses big words and cautions Johnny at every turn in his perilous journey. The two have been childhood friends and live together. Heflin seems to be the only one Johnny cares about although he treats him shabbily as well. One might question why Heflin is such a prodigious drunk and so blindly devoted until one notices the obvious gay undertones to the character.
Finally the track opens but new problems arise when other crooks want a piece of the action that Johnny is not willing to oblige. Then Stewart turns against him and goes to work for a competitor and Johnny begins to crack. It coincides with his finally falling in love with Turner which he says makes him a sucker... and weak and vulnerable to boot.
The finale is operatic. Johnny knocks out Turner and shoves her in a car with another man who loves her and turns to face a barrage of bullets from hoods coming out of every corner. It ends as it has to (in 1941) but includes a touching scene with Heflin crying as he holds his fallen friend.
Johnny Eager did not dash the hopes of those associated with it. It was a huge hit with the public although critics were all over the place. Those who found it lacking should have forevermore stayed out of movie theaters. Or perhaps they didn't understand film noir or crime dramas. I watched it again yesterday, having not seen it in 20 years or so, and found it as entertaining as ever.
LeRoy knew his way around crime stories having done quite a few during his time at Warners, who, in turn, knew its way around the genre. Old fussy Louis B. Mayer had to admit that it all turned out pretty well. It gave Taylor the role he was looking for. He couldn't hide handsome but he was in seventh heaven playing such a manly man and one with such unpleasant traits. I have always regarded this as one of the actor's very best films.
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| Taylor & LeRoy looking over the script |
It's been tossed around for years that LeRoy discovered Turner. That is not true nor is it true that it happened as she was sipping a soda at Schwab's Drugstore. She was actually discovered by Billy Wilkerson, the owner of the industry trade paper, The Hollywood Reporter. LeRoy was, however, the first to employ Turner and he was anxious to work with her again.
She had just finished working with two other giants of Hollywood's Golden Age... Spencer Tracy in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Clark Gable (MGM's other big male moneymaker) in the western, Honky Tonk. The decision had been made to make every effort to change Turner into a white-blonde-sex-goddess-glamour-puss in the tradition of the studio's late Jean Harlow. MGM thought the teaming of Turner and Taylor would be, well, like TnT.
Taylor wasn't the only one hoping the movie would alter his screen image. Turner agreed with MGM... she wanted to be a glamour girl. She had never been much interested in acting. She wanted to be a glamorous movie star and she wanted fame because both would bring her the only two things she was ever much interested in... men and jewels.
Taylor, in the third year of a 10-year marriage to Barbara Stanwyck, fell in love with Turner. According to her autobiography, they engaged in some passionate kissing and much flirting but that was all. When he told Stanwyck that he wanted a divorce to marry his costar, Turner extinguished the flame. Her career was still too new and Stanwyck too beloved in the acting community for Turner to become the other woman. MGM was hot to reteam TnT but the stars (and Stanwyck) thought better of it. Too bad.
I thought Turner and Taylor were one of the movies' best pairings. Both were great beauties and the camera loved them. His dark hair and her blondness just shimmered in this film. Movie fans would never forget them in Johnny Eager.
The best acting is delivered by Heflin, looking very young and appealing, and winning a supporting Oscar for his efforts. This type of a role was usually reserved for supporting actors in comedies and it may be a first supporting win for a serious crime caper. The first time I ever saw him was in Shane and I've made every effort to see all of his films.
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| The wonderful Van Heflin |
Heflin said that he owed his career taking off as it did to Taylor. He was primarily a Broadway actor although he'd done nine films, some famous, though never attracting that much attention. Taylor apparently saw him on Broadway and recommend to Mayer that Heflin be given this part and an MGM contract.
Edward Arnold, always a pleasure to see, held back most of his usual bluster but was still most effective as the D.A. who loved his daughter and despised Taylor. Newcomers Robert Sterling, Barry Nelson and Paul Stewart were welcome additions.
As with any film noir worth its salt, there is the standard confusion and absurd coincidences that help propel it to a melodramatic finale. Director of photographer Hal Rosson (last husband of Jean Harlow) and his superb lighting of those dark streets at the finale beguiled me with its salute to noir. There are greater examples of film noirs but still, there are enough twists and turns here to keep fans happy.
Okay, now for the slambam finish. You may be aware of Johnny being a popular movie title name. I offer there's never been a male first name more popular. Many were used in other crime stories, too. Think about it (this is gonna hurt my fingers)... Johnny Allegro, Johnny Angel, Johnny Apollo, Johnny Be Good, Johnny Belinda, Johnny Boy, Johnny Colt, Johnny Concho, Johnny Cool, Johnny Dangerously, Johnny Dark, Johnny English, Johnny Gruesome, Johnny Guitar, Johnny Hamlet, Johnny Handsome, Johnny Mad Dog, Johnny Mneumonic, Johnny Nobody, Johnny O'Clock, Johnny One-Eye, Johnny Reno, Johnny Staccato, Johnny Stool Pigeon, Johnny Suede, Johnny Tiger, Johnny Tremaine, Johnny Tsunami, Johnny Was and Johnny Yuma. Now see if you can repeat them in order without looking. Oh stop...
Here's the trailer:
Next posting:
a guilty pleasure from the 70s
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