I have 79 actor lists bookmarked on Letterboxd where Mrs. 1SO and I are planning to watch their entire filmographies. From Alan Ladd to William Powell. From the 16 features of Margaret Sullavan to as many of the 150 with Anthony Quinn I choose to watch. The one closest to completion is Fred Astaire with 34/36. (Holdouts are 1976's The Amazing Dobermans and 1977's The Purple Taxi.)
After Astaire comes...
Barbara Stanwyck 72/84 (85.7%)
James Cagney 57/65 (87.7%)
James Stewart 67/79 (84.8%)
This week I watched one featuring each of them. 3 titles from deep down in the deck.
Come Fill the Cup (1951)
* * * - Good
Cagney plays an alcoholic newspaperman who hits bottom. I was not looking forward to Cagney as a drunk, he too theatrical to play the serious side of such a disease. Luckily, the first act is about his personal rehabilitation through the help of another former alcoholic (James Gleason, in one of his best roles). Their scenes are direct and ring true, choosing honesty over melodrama. The real story involves Cagney being pressured by his boss (Raymond Massey) to detox his son (Gig Young, who was nominated for this performance, and rightly so.) I love seeing a film from the 50s that gets so much right about alcoholism, and Cagney is great playing a guy taking it one day at a time. The story with the son involves some noir elements including a gangster and some shady newspaper tactics, but that was the spoonful of sugar that helped this medicine go down. I'm marking this as a Discovery. Really curious to re-watch The Lost Weekend now.
I was so excited to find Come Fill the Cup, I pushed my luck with Cagney and followed it with Shake Hands with the Devil (1959). In this, Cagney plays an IRA terrorist in the 1920s. He's miscast but the only charismatic person in the film. Everyone else is authentic, but frightfully uninteresting.
* *
Navy Blue and Gold (1937)
* * * - Okay
Stewart's film is a sports drama set in Annapolis Naval Academy, also starring Robert Young. Even though this is early work, Stewart's persona is in full display. Sweet, serious, boyishly handsome, and in one scene as angry as I've seen him get in the Anthony Mann westerns. The film is standard, right down to the big football game finale, but this is a case where Stewart being one of and/or the greatest actors of all time makes a film like this into something worth watching.
The Gay Sisters (1942)
* *
Stanwyck plays the oldest of three sisters caught in a legal battle over their father's estate that's taken most of their lives. (The explanation of why this has gone on for so long is one of the best scenes.) The motivations of everyone fighting for the same piece of pie is interesting, but the dramatics have no life when they're played out. A rare case where I enjoyed the film more when the actors were talking instead of showing.