Dick Powell reinventing himself as the tough detective type and Four Star's founder

Mary Brian and Dick Powell, co-stars in "Blessed Event" (1932). They were also a couple for a short period of time during the 1930's. Dick Powell was considered one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors after his memorable performance in "Blessed Event". "He always seemed to be in good humor. He gave the impression of always enjoying what he was doing." -Mary Brian "Blessed Event" DVD Actors: Dick Powell, Mary Brian, Lee Tracy, Allen Jenkins Format: Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC Language: English Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1 Studio: Warner Bros. Digital Dist. DVD Release Date: February 21, 2012

 

Madeleine Carroll and Dick Powell in "On The Avenue" (1937) directed by Roy Del Ruth "On The Avenue" DVD Actors: Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye. Region 2. Studio: 20th Century Fox. DVD Release Date: September 24, 2012. Playing the role of Pamela in Alfred Hitchcock 1935 The 39 Steps spread Madeleine Carroll's fame beyond Britain and Hollywood came calling. Paramount Pictures secured her contract and she starred in The General Died at Dawn with Gary Cooper. Her next few pictures would all be on loan out to the recently formed 20th Century Fox (Lloyds of London), Columbia (It's All Yours) and David O. Selznick (The Prisoner of Zenda). It was 20th Century Fox that cast Madeleine in her one and only musical, Irving Berlin's On the Avenue. Powell plays Gary Blake, the writer and star of a new Broadway revue, not dissimilar to Irving Berlin's 1933 hit As Thousands Cheer. The love story between the songwriter and the upper crust girl somewhat mirrors the love story of Irving Berlin and Ellen Mackay, the Comstock Lode heiress. Disinherited from her father's will, Ellen and Irving shared a 62 year marriage, 3 daughters, 1 son and Berlin's "royalties". Take that, daddy-dear!

In the hands of the wrong actress or director the Mimi character could come off as just another spoiled rich girl raging against the world. Fortunately, Roy Del Ruth's experience and taste combined with comedic chops dating back to days with Sennett and such gems as The Broadway Melody of 1936, keep the plot light and breezy. Madeleine Carroll's extraordinary beauty immediately wins her audience favour, but it is also the light of intelligence in her eyes and her gracious way of speaking that keeps us on her side. Madeleine plays the comedy with charming nuance, although  Mimi can be stubborn and petulant. Dick Powell exceels as the playful playwrigth Gary Blake, generating genuine sparkles with Carroll. Irving Berlin composed six tunes for On the Avenue, several sung magnifically by Dick Powell, delivering his great tenor skills, in the context a Broadway Revue.

Producer Darryl F. Zanuck borrowed Dick Powell from Warner Bros. to headline this Irving Berlin musical which co-starred Madeleine Carroll and Alice Faye in a surprisingly semi-villainous role as the other woman in the piece. Mona, who now schemes to get Mimi out of the picture. Mona makes sure that Mimi, her father (George Barbier) and Aunt Fritz (Cora Witherspoon) are in the audience one night when she again does the contested satirical number. This time she makes it even more obvious that it is a send-up of the Caraway clan. The incensed Caraways sue Gary. Mimi then purchases the show from its producer (Walter Catlett) and alters Gary’s role to make him look foolish. She also pays the audience to walk out on the revue. Gary refuses to continue with the show. Mimi is scheduled to marry Sims (Alan Mowbray), an Arctic explorer, but Aunt Fritz realizes that Gary and Mimi are really in love. She sees to it that the couple wed in city hall, while Mona begins romancing Mimi’s affluent father. Source: The Great Hollywood Musical Pictures (2016) by James Robert Parish

 

Dick Powell and Jane Greer in "Station West" (1948) directed by Sidney Lanfield "Station West" DVD Region: Region 2 Format: Dolby, PAL Actors: Dick Powell, Jane Greer, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Powers Studio: Odeon Entertainment DVD Release Date: December 3, 2012

 

Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen filming "The Getaway" (1972). "Four Star Productions", founded by Dick Powell, was very different for Sam Peckinpah from the big studios. "Dick Powell was a very honorable guy", said Frank Baur, vicepresident in charge of production at the time. "He gave a lot of fellows chances, like myself and Sam Peckinpah among others. He was a very hardworking, graceful man." Peckinpah recalled in 1978: "Working with Mr. Powell fortunately (and unfortunately) left its mark on me. Why? Because we had the best crews, the best staff. I've never been able to find people like that since." In early 1959, Powell comissioned Peckinpah to write and direct a half-hour pilot that if successful would be promoted as a series under the title "Winchester". "I did this one script for Gunsmoke", Peckinpah recalled, "that Charles Marquin Warren turned down. Dick Powell at Four Star bought it as the pilot for The Rifleman. I went along with the property as part of the bargain. Dick Powell was a really fine gentleman and the eagle behind Four Star's success. He helped me a great deal." -"If They Move, Kill 'Em!: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah" (2001) by David Weddle and "Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage" (2004) by Garner Simmons

 

Dick Powell and Steve McQueen in 1960. Steve McQueen was the star of "Wanted: Dead or Alive" TV series, a Western show which was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Productions. On one occasion, McQueen arrived five hours late to the set; Powell, who was one of Hollywood's power players and a true gentleman, explained to McQueen in simple terms he was never to pull that stunt again: "We are a factory, and you are part of the ensemble. We tell you what lines you must follow, how you're wrapped, presented, and that's how the cookie crumbles." Stuntman Fred Krone said it was the only time he saw McQueen humbled. Powell did eventually make a concession for McQueen by pushing the start time of his shoot half an hour later to 7:45 A.M. "I've got a mental block about getting up early", McQueen explained, "I have had it since I got out of the Marines." -"Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon" (2010) by Marshall Terrill

 

Claire Trevor and Dick Powell in "Murder, My Sweet" (1944) directed by Edward Dmytryk "We both bought airplanes and we learned to fly together and we used to go off sometimes into the desert to some stop you know for breakfast or something. He loved all those kind of things." -Edward Dmytryk on his relationship with Dick Powell

 

"In the thirties, the sense of equality and mutuality between romantic leads seemingly grew out of classical style and editing, symmetrical two-shot compositions, the contribution of women coscenarists, and the peculiarities of the star system. In the forties, the male-female equilibrium wavers without quite collapsing. The chemistry, which beings to weaken in the fifties and sixties, is still there, but in different proportions and compounds, seeming less romantic and less innocent, sexier and more perverse. In the forties, there are a number of films where there are few women featured, and others like the noir films that are chock-full of them. In movies like "Johnny O'Clock", "The Big Sleep" and "Out of the Past", women come out of the woodwork - tough women, good women, bad women - to haunt the detective or hero". -"The Treatment of Women in the Movies" (1987) by Molly Haskell

 

Dick Powell and Joan Blondell made ten films together during their careers, being the last one "Model Wife" (1941)

   

Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell in "Gold Diggers of 1933", a pre-code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy in 1933 Dick felt trapped at Warner Bros., both by his contract and by the man-boy image the studio insisted for him. Though he loved singing profesionally and he practiced daily his scales around the house, the yard, and even in the shower, he moaned: “I’m 32 and I’m still playing boy scouts.” When Powell refused to appear in another routine Busby Berkeley musical, Jack Warner put him on twelve-week suspension.

 

And perhaps his feelings for studio typecasting ironically commented on his approach to sex. It usually happened on Friday nights and was signaled by Dick making eye contact with Joan, then hitching his eyebrows twice. Then a long and thorough preparatory cleansing followed— mouthwash, shower, hair combed, nails clipped—before pajamaclad foreplay.

 

Powell was a wonderful father to Norman and Ellen. Dick usually kept a sunny disposition: He tinkered around the house, helping the kids build model planes or play musical instruments. Joan appreciated that Dick’s boyish charm belied a clever businessman.

A sort of weariness had settled into their five-year marriage. No longer were they on the town arm in arm. Now they were stepping out separately, offering excuses of family duties or the flu to account for the oft-absent spouse. Dick went alone to see "Best Foot Forward" at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and was taken with sprightly young cast member June Allyson, who sang the praises of the barrelhouse, blues, and boogie-woogie in the “Three B’s” showstopper. Dick went with Joan a second time, and backstage Dick asked Rosemary Lane to be introduced to June Allyson, who was agape that a star of his rank would single her out.

 

Joan always conceded that Dick made a wonderful father. Such acknowledgment did not stop her from arming herself with lawyers and filing for divorce on 9 June 1944, charging Dick with emotional unavailability and adducing their characters incompatibility. The beginning of the end of the marriage coincided neatly with the beginning of the end of World War II, with the Allied troops landing in Normandy on 6 June. -"Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes" (2007) by Matthew Kennedy

  Dick Powell and Lucille Ball in "Meet the People" (1944) directed by Charles Reisner

 

Lucille Ball: "I really enjoyed working with Dick Powell. He was a great natural performer. He was so natural that he was not always given the credit he deserved. Dick didn't make noise about his acting, or his voice, or his marriage troubles, or even his losing fight with cancer. He was a sane, sensible, and stoic man. He was also a loving husband and father and a showman of rare ability." Lucille Ball appeared opposite Dick Powell in "Meet the People", a musical comedy that June Allyson had a small role in. Lucy knew June from appearing in "Best Foot Forward" in Broadway and introduced the starlet to her leading man. "Meet the People" was the last movie Dick made before reinventing himself as the tough detective type in "Murder My Sweet".

  Dick Powell, June Allyson and Ricardo Montalbán in "Right Cross" (1950) directed by John Sturges

  "As far as I'm concerned our marriage will last forever...  I'm madly in love with the man" -June Allyson (with Dick Powell) in 1945.

Dick Powell and June Allyson stayed married until his death (19 August 1945 - 2 January 1963) and they had two children: Pamela and Richard Jr. While June Allyson worked in the Broadway production of Best Foot Forward (1942): "One night an excited buzz went around backstage - Dick Powell is out front. We were all standing onstage and Rosemary Lane was saying, Really? Where, where? I was just a featured player so I waited until the stars of the show had their turn before I took a peep at the screen idol. There he was, seventh row center. Wouldn't he be surprised, I thought as I looked through the curtain at him, to know how many times I had skipped school to go see him in a movie? No, I suppose not. Didn't every girl drool over America's singing idol - star of both Gold Diggers and 20 Million Sweethearts with Ginger Rogers, and scores more - like 42nd Street and Naughty But Nice. A thrill passed through me, dark wavy hair, handsome boyish grin. They were all there, just like in the movies." ~ from the book "June Allyson" by June Allyson (1983)