THE COURAGE TO TAKE THINGS SERIOUSLY: JOHN M. STAHL’S UNIRONIC MELODRAMAS

One of cinema’s true pioneers, John M. Stahl (1886–1950) was once among the most highly regarded Hollywood directors – his contract with Louis B. Mayer was, at the time, considered as the future mogul’s most valuable contribution to the newly-merged MGM. His 1913 directorial debut, A Boy and the Law, a five-reeler which predated both Griffith and Sennett’s first attempts at features, radically blurred the line between fiction and documentary at a time when that line had barely even been drawn. The Woman Under Oath (1919), depicting a lone female juror holding out against her 11 male colleagues – when women could not even legally serve on New York juries – typifies Stahl’s career-long commitment to what was often patronisingly derided as “the woman’s perspective”. Born Jacob Morris Strelitsky in Baku, Azerbaijan, to Polish-Jewish parents who emigrated to New York in 1893, Stahl spent his formative years as an actor, a grounding which was to inform his exacting directorial approach. Rather than prioritising the merely visual elements, or focusing purely on narrative requirements, Stahl’s process was one of searching for the emotional truth of a scene, necessitating painstaking preparation, endless retakes and exorbitant shooting ratios. His leisurely output, by classical Hollywood standards, of just one film per year throughout his sound-era heyday at Universal and, later, at Fox, speaks to the investment Stahl would devote to each project. Studios tolerated his excesses because, unlike a Welles or Stroheim, Stahl’s box-office returns almost always justified the outlay. It is, perhaps, this consistent popularity – particularly with female audiences – that explains the coolness of some critics to Stahl’s oeuvre. His signature combination of improbable, outlandish plots with an unassuming, “objective” style – regularly utilising long takes and deep-focus staging – refuses both the cheap histrionics of identification and the emotional safety net of ironic detachment (something emphasised in the work of his great follower, Douglas Sirk). Stahl asks instead that his audience bear witness – with all of the moral imperative the phrase implies – requiring us to take a stance of radical empathy towards his characters: a position that now seems presciently modern. This season features many of Stahl’s key films, including several that were memorably remade by Sirk in the 1950s – Imitation of Life (1934) and Magnificent Obsession (1935) – and his most widely acclaimed film today, the extraordinary Leave Her to Heaven (1945).

Wednesday 3 December

7:00pm IMITATION OF LIFE

John M. Stahl (1934) 111 mins – PG

A single mother (Claudette Colbert) achieves business success on the back of a pancake recipe “given” to her by her African American maid (Louise Beavers). This epic adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s novel follows the pair’s complex relationship across the decades, as they endure heartaches both shared and individual. Stahl’s incisive original, like the more famous Sirk remake, boldly reckons with oppressions both systemic and personal, demonstrating the freedom with which maligned genres (the “women’s weepie”) could confront material deemed too incendiary for more “legitimate” dramas. Preston Sturges and future member of the “Hollywood Ten” Samuel Ornitz were among the 12 writers.

4K DCP.

9:10pm BACK STREET

John M. Stahl (1932) 93 mins – Unclassified 15+

Marking the first adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s popular 1931 novel of the same name, Stahl’s film is a strikingly realistic glimpse into what life was like for many women during the Great Depression. Featuring remarkably restrained performances from its two leads, Stahl regulars Irene Dunne and John Boles, the film is a tragic tale of doomed love and feminine masochism that eschews emotional melodrama in favour of a more objective gaze, an approach largely uncommon at the time and still deeply affecting to this day. With ZaSu Pitts and Jane Darwell.

Wednesday 10 December

7:00pm LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN

John M. Stahl (1945) 110 mins – PG

As a follow-up to her lead role in Laura, Gene Tierney was cast as Ellen Berent, an icy, dangerously narcissistic femme fatale given sympathetic attention consistent with Stahl’s broader approach to his women characters and their predicaments. Arguably the best Technicolor noir to emerge from the height of the classic Hollywood era – Leon Shamroy won a Best Color Cinematography Oscar – this tale of amour fou can equally be considered a psychological drama, a woman’s picture and a heightened melodrama. With Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price.

9:05pm MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

John M. Stahl (1935) 112 mins – Unclassified 15+

Stahl’s quintessential melodrama begins with a tragic (and avoidable) accident that inextricably entwines the lives of a young woman (Irene Dunne) and a reckless playboy (Robert Taylor) accustomed to carelessly paying for his misdemeanours by material means. A tale of spirituality, redemption, tragedy and devotion, it explores the limits of romantic love and the sacrifices undertaken in the ultimately selfless pursuit of a “magnificent obsession”. The first of Stahl’s films to be critically reworked by Douglas Sirk, its full commitment to the plot’s dramatic contrivances demonstrates Stahl’s full commitment to the emotions and situations of his characters.

4K DCP.

Wednesday 17 December

7:00pm SEED

John M. Stahl (1931) 96 mins – Unclassified 15+

Based on a social-realist novel by Charles G. Morris (Seed: A Novel of Birth Control), Stahl’s bracingly restrained second talkie is a “masterly orchestration of sympathies” (David Bordwell) in which a frustrated but entitled writer (John Boles) abandons his art to support his large family. An old flame (Genevieve Tobin) returns to work for his publishing firm, recognises his suppressed talent and rekindles their affair. This landmark work initiates the series of extraordinary romantic social dramas that constitute Stahl’s greatest cinematic contribution, demonstrating his understanding of the fate of women in male-dominated society. With ZaSu Pitts and Bette Davis.

35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

8:50pm MEMORY LANE

John M. Stahl (1926) 76 mins – Unclassified 15+

One of Stahl’s last silent films, this timeless exploration of love and second chances stars Eleanor Boardman, Conrad Nagel and William Haines. Masterfully blending the comic with the bittersweet, it is a testament to Stahl’s ability to craft romantic stories with sensitivity and restraint. Haines plays what some consider his finest role, though his acting career was to be cut short in the following decade because of his refusal to deny his homosexuality. According to Imogen Sara Smith, with this film Stahl became “a filmmaker who ranks with Mikio Naruse as an artist of tender irony and heartbreaking reserve”.

35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington.