Category Archives: Binnie Barnes

This Thing Called Love (1940)

rosalind russell this thing called love
Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Banned in Australia, Ireland, and by the Catholic Legion of Decency, This Thing Called Love is a fun romantic comedy with innuendos a-plenty. Although any mention of sex in this film is only implied (and it is implied quite a bit), such implications were enough to cause the ban. It is interesting to think that both Australia and Ireland’s censors were more conservative compared to the United States in 1940 than they are today. Today, most people would agree it is the complete opposite.

rosalind russell melvyn douglas this thing called love
Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas in This Thing Called Love (1940)

This Thing Called Love also marked the first time Rosalind Russell would star opposite Melvyn Douglas, one of my favorite actors. He was a little on the underrated side and not one of the most conventionally handsome types, but he was always bursting with exuberant charm and his most wonderful asset was his voice. I have always loved that voice of his and he was always a good match for many popular leading ladies of the time, appearing in many comedies with the likes of Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne, Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, Mary Astor, and Joan Blondell. He always had fantastic chemistry with all of his leading ladies. There must have been something about him that made him easy to get along with and work with. This was the sixth comedy in a row for Roz (although No Time for Comedy is also part drama) and it was clear what a bright comedienne she was. She was becoming known for comedy and perfectly showed off her flair for it.

rosalind russell this thing called love
Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Tice Collins, played by Melvyn Douglas, is on a ship sailing from South America (Peru, to be exact) back to New York City. He has had one woman on his mind during his trip and is excited to get back to her. Also on the boat with him is a successful banker named Julio Diestro (Lee J. Cobb), and his wife and children. Tice is trying to get a large business loan ($1 million) to finance a new mine (he’s an engineer) and has been busy trying to charm Diestro into getting him that loan. Meanwhile, back in the Big Apple, Ann (Rosalind Russell) is trying to win over her bosses at the insurance company where she works as a statistician. She wants them to finance a project she is planning. She has written a book called The Practical Plan for Marriage and her idea is that after couples get married, they should live together in name only. This means they shouldn’t consummate their marriage for three months. Couples need to get to know each other better before they bring sex into it. She believes that this idea needs to be tested to see if it works and her soon-to-be husband, Tice, has no idea he will be the guinea pig in her experiment.

melvyn douglas rosalind russell this thing called love
Melvyn Douglas and Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

When Ann goes to the docks to meet Tice, it is obvious how smitten they are with each other. They don’t even speak when they see each other. They kiss and kiss for what seems a long time, while Tice’s lawyer, Harry (Allyn Joslyn) and his secretary, Charlotte (Binnie Barnes) stand right next to them. Of course, they are so wrapped up in each other that they don’t even hear Harry and Charlotte attempting to talk to them. Tice and Ann have been separated from each other for six months, but it is soon revealed that they only knew each other on the boat for one week when they fell in love and decided to get married. Ann’s sister Ruth (Leona Maricle) is getting divorced just as Ann is about to marry. Predictably, when Ann whispers her plan in Tice’s ear, he yelps, “WHAT?! YOU’RE CRAZY!” As she gets up to leave the courtroom where they came to watch the divorce proceedings, Tice whimpers like a hurt puppy before following her out. Ann explains to him that she isn’t sure their marriage will work because they fell too hard too fast.

rosalind russell this thing called love
Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

The next day, Tice decides to discuss Ann’s plan with Harry. Harry and his wife Florence (Gloria Dickson) are cause for a lot of friction in this story. They are constantly bickering and insulting each other. In fact, they fight so much that there are about five or six dents in their bedroom door where Florence throws a shoe at him as he closes the door. Harry thinks Ann’s plan is silly and she will soon forget it as long as Tice turns on the charm for her after they’re married.

sig arno melvyn douglas rosalind russell this thing called love
Sig Arno, Melvyn Douglas, and Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

So they get married. On their wedding night, they both get dressed up to have dinner together downstairs in their new house. As Ann gets ready, Tice gets ready… to ply her with champagne and whichever tricks he may have up his sleeve to seduce her. When she comes down, they embrace and kiss each other. As he holds her, he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and salutes. Even though the objective is for Tice to charm Ann into the bedroom, there is a moment where Ann kisses him and immediately wants to kiss him again, but he actually turns away, almost as if he’s playing hard to get for a brief moment. They start drinking champagne, something that Ann thoroughly enjoys. As Tice continuously refills her glass, she remarks that she can “drink quarts and quarts of it [champagne] and it never affects me one way or another.” She spies a little statuette on the table and he explains that it is the Aztec god of plenty, a fertility god that will “ensure abundant crops and offspring.” She makes with the big eyes and turns away from him, changing the subject.

melvyn douglas rosalind russell this thing called love
Melvyn Douglas and Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Tice’s next technique is to play the song that was playing when they first met. She immediately recognizes it and with goo-goo eyes, she starts to dance with him as they reminisce about that night. She starts complaining about it being too warm and Tice suggests that they go upstairs because it’s much cooler up there. She refuses, but he doesn’t give up. He slyly turns on the heater so it won’t cool down as she opens the window. The champagne begins to make her act silly and when the phone rings, she makes herself comfortable on the couch and answers with a shrill, very relaxed “Hellooooo!” She half listens to her colleague talk about a business proposition, saying things like “They’re just putting in these perfectly looooooooooooooovely safety belts.” After Tice unplugs the phone, Ann grins at him and tells him the place is “sooooooooooo nice.” Ann is just about to crack as Tice starts kissing her from her temple down her face and neck, but then she catches sight of the pamphlet about her plan. She comes to her senses, gets up, and bids Tice good night, but not before she takes the groom off their wedding cake, bringing him with her.

rosalind russell this thing called love
Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Tice grumbles and stares at his reflection in the mirror, saying sarcastically, “You’re irresistible! You’ve got charm!” Not long after this, Diestro comes over to their house for dinner, not sure he wants to give Tice the loan because he isn’t the family man he was hoping for. Harry and Charlotte mistakenly lead Diestro to believe that Ann is pregnant (which of course would be impossible) and so they will start their family very soon. When Tice is let in on this secret, they all desperately do their best to conceal the news of Ann’s alleged pregnancy from Ann herself. Ann arrives home and literally jumps with all the gusto she could muster into the living room, which shocks the Diestros, not wishing to see a pregnant woman acting like that. That part always makes me laugh because seriously, who does that? Only Rosalind Russell, of course. At dinner, Tice constantly changes the subject away from babies or anything related to them and Ann starts to think he’s insane. He, Harry, and Charlotte change the subject to football, to sluices (water channel controlled at its head by a gate, from Wikipedia), to the world’s fair, then they all stand up and toast three times—to South America, to the United States, and to both Americas! In a final ditch effort to steer the conversation, Tice breaks into song, singing “America the Beautiful” until everyone in the room is singing along, including Ann, who is shooting Tice a dirty look.

Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas in This Thing Called Love (1940)
Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Tice calls his own phone from the extension upstairs and as he gets Ann’s boss, Gordon Daniels (Paul McGrath), on the phone, he informs him that his office is on fire in order to clear out the house. As Ann is giving the Diestros a tour of the house, she catches them in the act as she watches Harry splashing in the bathtub, pretending to be putting out the “fire.” She then discovers that Tice has invited the Diestros to stay for the weekend, which means he gave up his bedroom for them. Oh, what a sacrifice he made! I guess that means he has to stay in Ann’s room this weekend. Meanwhile, Harry’s wife Florence finds Charlotte outside doing some work. They get into an argument, which culminates in Florence literally tearing the black dress (which was a cause for friction between her husband and herself) off Charlotte’s back. Ann plays cards with the Diestros and keeps dropping hints about what a bad idea it was for them to leave their children at their hotel. When she mentions that she had a friend get lost in the hotel for days, Mrs. Diestro can’t stand it any longer and insists they go back to the hotel. They go outside and there is an awkward moment as Ann finds her husband draping a towel around Charlotte.

rosalind russell melvyn douglas this thing called love
Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Now that the Diestros aren’t staying, Tice tries again and this time, he helps Florence and Harry make up, inviting them to stay for the weekend. However, before the now happy couple enters Tice’s bedroom, Ann takes Harry aside and lets him know that Florence called him some names in front of other people. “It was something awfully silly. I think it was, um… chowderhead.” Harry snaps at Florence: “When are you gonna learn to shut that flannel mouth of yours?” They start bickering again and leave. Tice is angry that his plans didn’t come to fruition and goes to take a swim with Charlotte. When some neighbors come walking by, Charlotte tells Tice they need to hide in the nearby bush because she doesn’t want to get into trouble with another wife. Unfortunately, as the neighbors remark, what they just jumped into was poison oak.

this thing called love poster
This Thing Called Love poster

In the last half hour of the film enters “Sexy Rosalind.” She wears a total of four nightgowns or negligées in this span of time. I wonder how she liked to parade around in nightgowns because it was not something she usually did in films. It is a very interesting change for her and she does it very well (for people who don’t think Roz can pull “sexy” off). The next morning when Ann finds Tice’s bed hasn’t been slept in, she decides once and for all to forget her plan and have a real marriage. Of course, by this time, Tice has decided to play hard to get. When Ann calls him up at the club and mentions that if a man claims he has a wife and really hasn’t one, that would be insurance fraud, she purrs into the phone, “Wellll, I don’t want you to go to jail.” When Tice arrives home, he finds Ann trying to be as sexy as possible for him. He tries to put the flowers he brought in some water, but he can’t ignore Ann. He drops the flowers and reaches out to kiss her, but the telephone rings. Tice has started scratching himself and as Charlotte tells him on the phone, he finds out why. They both have poison oak and he will come down with it badly very soon. He turns to Ann and they start drinking champagne. She says, “You know, one sip of this and I don’t remember a thing,” a statement very different from the one earlier in the film.

melvyn douglas rosalind russell this thing called love
Melvyn Douglas and Rosalind Russell in This Thing Called Love (1940)

Tice takes her wedding ring off her finger and throws it into the fireplace. He puts another on her finger and tells her it’s the real one since now they will start a real marriage. Trying to keep the conversation with Charlotte from his wife, he tells her it was Harry. She keeps wanting to get close to him, so he asks her to dance instead. They start dancing, but he has the urge to scratch. He starts doing a funny sort of “rumba” dance, but is really just rubbing himself against the post behind him to scratch that itch, while making bizarre jerking movements. He has the operator call him and pretends he is on the phone with a friend named “Shorty” in Cheyenne. He has to go out of town right away to Cheyenne and immediately leaves Ann hanging. Ann responds, “I don’t get it.” Then she turns to the camera, as if she is talking to us. “Do you?”

rosalind russell on the set this thing called love
Rosalind Russell on the set of This Thing Called Love (1940)

Sometime later, Ann’s boss, Gordon, completely drunk, has driven her home from a business dinner. He passes out and Ann lets him sleep it off in Tice’s bedroom. Tice suddenly comes home the next morning, surprising her. As he takes Ann into his arms, over Tice’s shoulder she sees Arno (Sig Arno), the butler, go into the other bedroom. She tries her best to keep Tice out of his own bedroom. Unfortunately, as Arno tries to get Gordon out, they both fall down the stairs and make a racket. Tice sees Gordon in his pajamas and shoots Ann an angry look. She tries to explain what happened, but he won’t listen to her. He is in trouble, too, because she sees the label on his cowboy hat and it was made in New York City. Then medicine for poison oak falls out of his coat pocket. She begins to realize that he never went to Cheyenne after all and he has poison oak, which she knows Charlotte also has. She lifts up his shirt and he slaps her hand away. They do this over and over until she glares at him and says, “Did he [his friend Shorty] give you his spots, too?” He replies, “They’re birthmarks!” “Whose birthmarks—Charlotte Campbell’s?”

alexander hall rosalind russell this thing called love
Director Alexander Hall and Rosalind Russell on the set of This Thing Called Love

Just as Ann is about to board plane for Reno, she hears Tice has gone a little nuts and is selling his mine for much less than it’s worth. She asks her brother-in-law, who is a psychiatrist, to get him out of the meeting and take him home. “You gotta get him out of there, even if you have to put him in a straitjacket!” Which is exactly what he does, and Tice is stuck at home in one. At the last minute, Ann changes her mind and runs back home. When she can’t find Tice anywhere, she sobs, knowing she’s lost him. But when the phone rings and she hears Tice on the extension, she gets excited and grabs the fertility god from downstairs. She slowly puts the statuette on the dresser in Tice’s room and he knows what this means.

IMDB page for This Thing Called Love

TCM overview of the film

Rendezvous (1935)

When Rosalind Russell was told she was going to be William Powell’s leading lady in the 1935 film Rendezvous, she automatically felt bad for him. “I felt self-conscious. Powell and Loy had been a hit in The Thin Man, they were an unbeatable team, so my first day on Rendezvous, I tried to apologize. ‘I know you don’t want me, you’d rather have Myrna—‘ Powell denied it. ‘I love Myrna, but I think this is good for you, and I’m glad we’re doing it together.’” (Life is a Banquet, 59).

rosalind russell william powell loretta young
Rosalind Russell with William Powell and Loretta Young

His kindness helped her in more ways than one. It is obvious that they enjoy each other’s company in this film, and Roz does quite well in her first lead role. She adored Bill Powell as a friend and as a man—a man with many great qualities, especially in his ability to make others around him laugh and above all his gentlemanly manners.

After eight rather limited, sometimes thankless roles in films, Roz finally got her lucky chance in a lead role and opposite one of the most popular and charming actors of the day, William Powell. It was also the first time she had a significant comedy role (the only other time she delivered comedy lines was in Forsaking All Others, and she had little screen time). She does wonderfully in her first lead comedy role, which foreshadows what a great screen comedienne she would become.

william powell rosalind russell rendezvous
William Powell and Rosalind Russell

Most Rosalind Russell fans are aware of what some of us call the “Roz Eyes,” which occurs when Miss Russell widens her eyes just enough to make the audience laugh, a funny reaction that she displays in many a comedy. She does it so easily that I have begun to suspect she did it involuntarily; it was just a natural reaction in comedy. She also tended to raise her right eyebrow when she thought something in the situation was a bit off or if she didn’t like what her co-star said. These are the little things—the facial expression, eccentric gestures—that become apparent when one carefully studies an actress’s work. It is just these typically Roz facial expressions that first become obvious in Rendezvous. Oh, she might have done it in earlier films, but it wasn’t as noticeable. It is these reactions that can sometimes remind one of Lucille Ball in “I Love Lucy,” another great comedienne.

rosalind russell rendezvous
Rosalind Russell on location for filming

Rendezvous stars William Powell (in large letters above the title, of course) and Rosalind Russell (in much smaller letters below the title, but hey, I suppose she was still getting started). These two had a very fun chemistry. Of course, it pales in comparison with the chemistry Bill had with Myrna Loy (after all, they did star in 13 film together), but it is obvious Bill and Roz liked each other and enjoyed working with one another. Bill ended up being a longtime friend of hers and even attended her wedding six years later. I have always wished they made more films together, but we can’t have everything we want. They could have had more delightful fun together. This film takes place during World War I in the year 1917 when the United States entered the war. The film concerns a group of men whose job it is to crack the code coming from the enemy so they know what their next move is. The way the code is always written is with invisible ink on ordinary documents. William Powell plays William Gordon, a master at the task, who even wrote a book about enciphering and deciphering code. Soon after Bill is introduced onscreen, Roz appears and she plays Joel Carter, a young woman who spends a lot of her time helping with charities and participating in the women’s suffrage movement.

rosalind russell william powell rendezvous
Rosalind Russell and William Powell

She immediately wants a celebrated Russian singer who is attending the charity event which they are all attending. She wants him to sing at her bazaar and when a man points the singer out to her, she mistakenly thinks Bill is the man she wants. When he realizes what she wants, he plays along and even puts on a fake Russian accent. He says some bizarre things to her and kisses her up and down her arm, which makes her uncomfortable. It is in this very first scene that some of Rosalind’s comic abilities come together and surface. Oh, even if she isn’t doing all the talking, the audience notices her. It’s all in her facial expressions. More fun ensues as a friend of Joel’s convinces her to help her with the charity auction. The woman tells the participants that the person who bids the highest on a doll will be kissed by Joel.

henry stephenson rosalind russell cesar romero rendezvous
Henry Stephenson, Rosalind Russell, and Cesar Romero

Joel is embarrassed to do this, but she goes along with it. Soon, she sees a man with a very cumbersome beard (meaning there is just nothing on his face but hair) bidding higher and higher. She starts to get nervous until she sees Bill bidding on her. She seems to enjoy this, but isn’t laughing when Bill suddenly stops bidding at the last minute and the bearded man wins. She gives him a quick peck on the cheek and tells Bill she didn’t think he was very funny. Also at the charity auction is Nick Nieterstein (played by Cesar Romero), a man who has been jilted by Joel several times already, but is determined to have a date with her.

william powell rosalind russell rendezvous
William Powell and Rosalind Russell

He is rather mysterious and we soon find out he is working for the enemy as he relays a code to a man in San Diego, who cleverly writes the code in invisible ink on a prescription medicine bottle, which is then sent on to Mexico, where a man hands it to some Germans who are hiding out in his basement.

The next day, Bill spots Joel again, this time marching in a women’s suffrage march. He notices right away that she is holding a sign which reads “I sent my sons to war, I want the vote,” which clearly does not apply to her.

william powell rosalind russell rendezvous
William Powell and Rosalind Russell

He jokingly asks her if she has any grandchildren and she switches to a sign marked “I’m in the junior league, I want to vote.” Suddenly, police officers are trying to stop their march and one in particular gets into an altercation with Joel. He tries to take her sign from her and she resists him, trying to push him away. Bill tries to come to her rescue, but when he throws a punch, the cop avoids it and Joel gets it full in the eye. Later, she softens toward Bill and is enjoying his company, but has a date with Nieterstein. She tells him she can’t possibly break a date with him again, but after Bill persuades her to kiss him goodbye at the train station before he goes off to war, she changes her mind. She looks back at Nieterstein sitting alone in the restaurant and quips, “He isn’t a bad chap. I don’t know why I treat him this way.” However, when she gives Bill a few kisses goodbye, she watches a train go and yells out, “Your train is gone!” Bill quickly explains to her that a train is gone. She realizes he’s taken advantage of her and runs off. He chases her down and they spend the entire afternoon and evening together.

rosalind russell william powell rendezvous
Rosalind Russell and William Powell

He is ordered to work for the war department in Washington, D.C. so they can make use of his decoding skills. He is furious that he has to work at a desk because all he wanted to do was go to war in Europe. He eventually figures out that the Assistant Secretary of War has a niece named Joel Carter and this is when the tables are turned. In the beginning, Bill was chasing Joel all over town, but once this happens, he is so angry that he doesn’t want anything to do with her. So what does she do? She starts chasing him just like a puppy dog. She knows he loves her and simply will not give up. I liked seeing the woman chase the man for once and it was very amusing the scrapes she got him in over the course of the film. At one point, she puts sleeping pills in his coffee because he has stayed up all night trying to decipher a secret code. After drinking the coffee, he ingests some powder that keeps one awake. When Joel finds out what he’s done, she calls out for a stomach pump. He orders her off the premises because he thinks she is ruining his life.

rosalind russell william powell rendezvous
Rosalind Russell and William Powell

A very important scene in the comedy of this film is when an enemy spy named Olivia comes into the picture (played by the lovely Binnie Barnes, who 30 years later would make The Trouble with Angels and Where Angels Go… Trouble Follows! with Roz). Joel, not always the sharpest crayon in the box, does not realize that Bill is not in the least bit interested in Olivia. He only wants to try to get some information from her. However, she does a funny bit when she pretends to be a matron to help Olivia off with her clothes. There was no way she would allow Bill to do it himself, after all. All eyes are on Roz in this scene. Just watch the way she handles the clothing and the shoes as she takes each article from her. Also, the way she walks back and forth is just funny. She ends it all with a hilarious line to Bill, “She’s bow-legged.” After she brings Olivia some new clothes to try on (an absolutely hideous outfit Joel purposely picked out), Olivia says, “Lt. Gordon is charming, don’t you think so?” to which Joel replies, “Well, of course I only met him with my clothes on,” giving her a withering gaze.

rosalind russell william powell rendezvous
Rosalind Russell and William Powell

Joel, completely fueled by her jealousy of Olivia, gets herself into trouble by showing up at her hotel room. She is soon bound and gagged and Bill has to save her. He pushes her down as the room is riddled with bullets. Once the Department of Justice has saved them from harm, Joel crazily starts saying, “He hit me over the head with a hammer!” without realizing Bill saved her life. The film ends charmingly when once again, she is kissing Bill (now her husband) goodbye at the train station as he goes off to war for real this time. However, he is once again ordered to sit behind a desk.

rosalind russell rendezvous
Rosalind Russell giving Binnie Barnes that withering gaze

He stares at Joel knowingly and he starts chasing her through the station. The first time they did this, she was running away from his intentions; this time, it was just cute. This wasn’t exactly the comedy role Roz was known for, but she is rather adorable, charming, and her comic abilities are not to be missed.

 

 

IMDB page for Rendezvous

TCM Overview

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Scene from Rendezvous (1935)