Jean Arthur on Criterion
Monday, April 27, 2020 at 12:40PM 
Charming and witty, Jean Arthur was one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. While nowadays she's most famous for her comedic works, Arthur wasn't constricted to only humorous movies, being able to play everything from melodramas to crime pictures. Still, it's easy to see why her comedy talents are her calling card to this day. The actress was able to bring the manic, unstable energy of screwball comedy to all of her movies, imbuing them with an electrifying unpredictability. Like a black hole can bend light, so did Arthur bend the tone of every film she was in, making projects bow to the power of her screen presence and helping them become better, more complicated cinema in the process.
Her filmography is full of greatness. The Criterion Channel is celebrating her enviable resume with a new collection of 16 of her films available to stream. Here are some major highlights from that sterling selection…
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937)
Directed by one of Old Hollywood's most underrated masters, Frank Borzage's History Is Made at Night is one weird picture. It feels like someone decided to play a screwball comedy as a romantic melodrama with a psychotic edge, stuffing as many wild contrivances into a single plot as it's humanly possible. The result is as bizarre as it is compelling, a narrative that goes off the deep end from the very start, when attempted rape, murder, and rom-com hijinks coexist in the same tonal universe. By the time you reach a Titanic-esque shipwreck spurned on by jealous rage either the film has lost its marbles or we have. Either way, it's a delight and Jean Arthur as the picture's female lead. Her unhinged laughing fit during what should be a moment of romantic triumph is particularly grand.
ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939)
They might not have enjoyed their time working together, but Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur are a match made in heaven. The director of such classics as Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday and To Have and Have Not, had a knack for creating indelible heroines whose sheer determination and wised-up attitude made them into magnetic figures, often singled out in a predominantly male environment. As a pianist who willfully decides to live among a community of ex-pat aviators in Colombia, Jean Arthur is pitch-perfect. Her chemistry with Cary Grant, the movie's male protagonist, is especially admirable, following the Hawksian model of antagonism giving way to desire with seamless ease.
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
Frank Capra proved to be one of Jean Arthur's most celebrated collaborators, directing her in big successes like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can't Take It With You. To be honest, I have a certain antipathy towards most of Capra's syrupy oeuvre, especially when the man tried to marry reactionary politics to his trademark sentimentality. Surprisingly enough, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was always an exception, managing to charm my bitter heart thanks, in great part, to its cast. As the titular Mr. Smith, James Stewart has rarely been better while Claude Rains delivers Machiavellian venom as a manipulative senator. For her troubles, Jean Arthur gets the movie's most slyly complicated role, saddled with a great deal of cynicism that is in stark opposition to the rest of the project's naivete. Her arc is one of surrender to the idealism of Capra and Mr. Smith, but she makes it seem natural, more like a hard-won transformation than a plot mechanism.
THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES (1941)
Jean Arthur's characters might come off as flighty or simple, but there's always an undercurrent of intelligence and emotional complexity to them. It's that eponymous unpredictability of hers. She's not a performer who makes radically different choices in every film, but her creations feel more mysterious than the scripts strictly stipulate. The Devil and Miss Jones, a politically confused pro-worker(?) story by notorious conservative Sam Wood, perfectly exemplifies these qualities of Arthur. In the beginning, the actress may seem like she's delivering a saintly take on a terminally upbeat woman, but as the plot advances, we get more and more insights into Miss Jones' troubled inner-life. There's a monologue she delivers with such aching earnestness that it made me tear up, which isn't an easy feat when we consider that this is a screwball comedy.
THE MORE THE MERRIER (1943)
Reuniting her with The Devil and Miss Jones' Charles Coburn and The Talk of the Town's director George Stevens, The More the Merrier earned Jean Arthur her only Oscar nomination. The picture is a wartime romcom in which an obstinate old man manipulates two attractive youngsters into falling in love during a critical shortage of living space in Washington D.C. Such a description could suggest an unpleasant and deeply problematic affair, but The More the Merrier is utterly charming thanks to Stevens' elegant direction and the charisma of the actors who play their characters with surprising naturalism. It also helps that, as the main couple, Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea have palpable chemistry, vibrating with lust during moments of seduction while never betraying the delicate comedy stylings at the heart of the movie.
What's your favorite Jean Arthur picture? Is it on this Criterion Channel collection?
Reader Comments (17)
The More the Merrier is great, and I think it's Jean Arthur's best performance.
She, not James Stewart, is the real star of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. (And I adore Stewart, he is one of my all-time favorites.) Her character develops so much throughout that film, and is such a feminist for the era! Sorry, Vivien Leigh fans - I know you are legion - but Jean Arthur is my Best Actress of 1939.
Is the Criterion subscription worth it? It isn’t really easy to watch older movies these days it seems.
Thanks for a lovely piece on the undercelebrated Jean Arthur. There's really no one quite like
her. Hard to choose a favorite performance - but I'd certainly want to cite 1935's wonderful John Ford comedy "The Whole Town's Talking" with Edward G. Robinson. This was kind of a breakthrough picture for Arthur, the first to really reveal the uniqueness of her particular magic. After that certainly "Only Angels Have Wings", a perfect film that wouldn't have been quite perfect without her. "The Devil and Miss Jones" is sublime, Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn both beyond terrific in it, each absolutely Oscar worthy. Finally there's her final big screen appearance in the classic "Shane". I'm not sure how that somewhat unexpected piece of casting came about. But in retrospect she was the ideal choice. Her sensitive chemistry with Alan Ladd remains a thing of beauty. Luckily for modern viewers, all four of these fine films are available on Blu-ray., each viewing guaranteed to reinforce Jean Arthur's reputation.
Arlo -- I don't know if it's worth it. It certainly depends on your viewing habits and taste in movies.
As for me, I'd love to have access to the Criterion Channel, but it's not yet available in Portugal. I've never watched some of the movies in this selection, for instance, and would love to do so.
Still, with all that said, my favorite Jean Arthur picture is actually absent from the 16 picture collection (though someone uploaded it on youtube). It's 1937's Easy Living, a delightful screwball comedy directed by art director and costume designer Mitchell Leisen. I can't recommend that one enough, especially if you're a Jean Arthur fan.
If you're interested in Criterion, try it out for a month during the pandemic and see if you like it. I am so thankful it exists right now.
@Jules- I would have classified her in the supporting category and in my opinion should have won
I love her voice.
Only Angels Have Wings is a perfect movie. Probably Hawks' very best, and that says a lot. A masterpiece.
I remember being obsessed with her (rather than Stewart) when I saw Mr Smith Goes to Washington. I could listen to that voice forever.
I recently found one of her minor films - Too Many Husbands from 1940 - which was fun but completely forgettable. Yet even in this movie she has one extended silent closeup that is just a masterclass in comic AND dramatic acting at the same time.
She's a treasure and definitely one of the greats. Such a shame her career dropped off so quickly after the (sublime and - to me - unexpectedly sexy) More the Merrier.
An intelligent genius who had both comedic and dramatic gifts. Frank Capra and George Stevens knew this and considered her one of the best. I love The Devil and Miss Jones and agree that she and Joel Mcrea melt the screen in The More the Merrier. Did you know she was the lead in the original Broadway production of Born Yesterday but got cold feet? Judy Holliday took over and became a star. I wonder what Jean Arthur would have done in that role.
MR SMITH GOES TO *WASHINGTON* (not TOWN)
Craig T -- Fixed it. Thank you for pointing it out and I apologize for the mistake.
The Devil and Miss Jones is a really fantastic. Charles Coburn is a lovely foil to Jean Arthur in that movie.
Have to admit I think Only Angels Have wings is pretty overrated and that Arthur in particular seems out of her element. She isn’t even remotely convincing as a chorine and Grant seems to make her (the actress, not the character) insecure and edgier than usual. Grant also seems uncomfortable trying to be extra butch and for all that it did to advance her career, Hayworth really struggles with what is always a much smaller role than one would think given how talked up her performance has been in the years since. I think no one really seems at ease and all did much finer thing elsewhere.
There are some interesting facts in Farran Smith Nehme's introduction to the films on Criterion Channel that illuminate some of the comments here. For example, she and Grant did not get along well (I agree that Only Angels Have Wings is a rather tepid effort, despite the fact that I love all three principal actors, and I'm not much of a fan of The Talk of the Town either). Additionally, she was fairly nervous and quit movies of her own volition, but she really enjoyed working with George Stevens.
The short Smith Nehme videos are always really worth watching and full of interesting biographical notes - I recommend them if you have the Channel.
In her later years, Arthur was an acting professor at Vassar who encouraged Meryl Streep.
She & Stanwych r Stevens' fav actresses!! I feel she only relaxes & gives her best performances when she trusted her directors like Capra & Stevens
Its a shame tt her stage fright & insecurities get the betta of her & she literally turns down tonnes of film roles after The More the Merrier, when she left Columbia. Her combative reputation & numerous fights w directors (incl Wilder) also did her no favour.
But her voice!! tt voice!! so buttery & warm & so soothingly sexy & so distinctive!! Hollywood never find ano Jean Arthur & thank goodness to tt!!
She is so effortless in the 30s screwball comedies tt I tink the Academy & audience kinda dun take her so seriously, tt explain her drought of award recognition in her heydays.
She shld've been nom for History/Easy Living or Mr Smith or even The Devil & Miss Jones!