Programme notes CH 04 — The Matinee
Romance
An old bishop talks his grandson out of a marriage by confessing the one he wanted himself.
Garbo’s second talkie came out the same year as her first, and the Academy nominated her for both at once. Here she is Rita Cavallini, an Italian soprano in the New York of the 1860s, adored by a young rector (Gavin Gordon) and kept by a banker (Lewis Stone) too civilised to be jealous. Sheldon’s play is told as a memory, and Brown opens on a 1930 street before the old bishop takes us back. Watch how often Brown stands her in a doorway or against a lit window, half in the room and half on her way out. Adrian dressed her for the period, and William Daniels lit her as if the period were a dream.
Credits — follow anyone
- Directed by
- Clarence Brown
- Photographed by
- William H. Daniels
- With
- Greta Garbo · Henry Armetta · Clara Blandick · Lewis Stone · Elliott Nugent · Mathilde Comont
Every name is a door — each opens onto everything else that person made in the network.
The thread · every thread
Two 1930 love stories in which a rich New York family sets its face against a woman with a past. Capra lets the boy defy them; Sheldon's bishop spends sixty years wishing he had.