Sonneck Society for American Music

Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no. 2 (Summer 1997)

Bringing the Dead to Life: Scores for Romantic Supernatural Films of the 1940s

Linda Schubert, Los Angeles

The Second World War had a powerful impact on Hollywood feature films made for public entertainment. In many of these films the harsh aspects of the real war were softened and/or romanticized, but the war's influence can be detected even in the storylines, themes, images, and music of films that do not, at first glance, appear to be about the war at all. It is a particular group of these films and their scores that I will discuss here.

From the late 1930s to the late 1940s, a cluster of films appeared that featured benevolent supernatural characters intervening in the lives of mortals. These films, which I call "romantic supernatural films," emphasized altruistic rather than horrific aspects of the supernatural. They include Topper (1937), Topper Returns (1941), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1943), That's the Spirit (1943), A Guy Named Joe (1944), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), and Heaven Only Knows (1947). These supernatural films, often comedies, appear especially to have struck a responsive chord and the number of them steadily increased throughout the war.¹

Though they may be regarded as light, escapist fare, the very thing to be escaped -- the relentless death and waste of war -- lay just below the surface. I believe that the themes of death and afterlife struck a particular note of recogition in audiences of a society deeply immersed in fighting and loss. Such films gave viewers concrete images of the dead continuing to live and to exist with a purpose. As one reviewer has commented, "heaven in wartime was a comforting vision."² As we shall see, not only was the war's presence implied in the focus on death in these films, the films could also carry powerful pro-war messages- messages, as will be seen, that sometimes qualified as propaganda.³

Music plays a crucial part in the telling of stories on film, communicating information, offering commentary, guiding and sometimes manipulating viewers' emotional reactions to what is seen. Though a considerable amount of literature now exists on film music in general, there is little so far that specifically addresses the use of film music for political purposes in the United States during World War II. This paper, then, is an attempt to begin thinking about the subject of romantic supernatural films, how they reflected and sometimes helped create attitudes toward the war, and the role music played in them.

The soundtrack of a film is made up of three elements: the dialogue, sound effects, and music. The first two elements fall outside the scope of this discussion. The third element, music, is used two ways in film, broadly speaking. The first is as diegetic music, i.e. music originating within the story that both characters and audience can hear (someone turns on a radio or a dance band begins to play). This is also called source music. The second use is as non-diegetic music, i.e. background music only the audience can hear, that comments upon the action taking place on-screen. Relationships between diegetic and non-diegetic music are frequently complex, and the differences between them are easily blurred- for example, when source music introduces music that later becomes part of the background score, or when a theme is first introduced in the background that later becomes source music.⁴ Film scores of the 1930s-40s generally follow compositional practices rooted in late nineteenth-century German romantic style, marshalling a full symphony orchestra with non-diegetic leitmotives providing important structural elements (Leitmotives, however, can also occur in diegetic music).

As a working model for thinking about the importance and function of music in films, I advocate the idea of "parallel illustration." In brief, parallel illustration is the theory that the narrative of mainstream films is the foundational element of these films, rather than the images. The images provide a stream of illustration that parallels the story. The soundtrack then provides a third stream, an "aural illustration" that parallels both the storyline and the images.⁵ The point, for our purpose here, is to emphasize that music in film is not minor or secondary, but constitutes an interpretive stream in its own right.

Diegetic and non-diegetic music together then make up an aural telling of the story parallel to the visual telling.⁶ The aural as well as the visual telling also plays a vital role in communicating whatever message or moral the story may carry. In a famous anecdote, Samuel Goldwyn quashed the notion that film carry messages, saying "messages are for Western Union," but film scholars who study the relationships between film, politics, and propaganda, emphatically disagree. Films do deliver messages.⁷

To illustrate how music and images interact to convey attitudes and viewpoints, I have chosen two films for discussion: Here Comes Mr. Jordan from 1941 and A Guy Named Joe from 1944. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was made before the United States entered the war. Films coming out of Hollywood at this time increasingly reflected national tensions over whether to take a stand against Fascism in Europe or remain isolated and out of the fray. Warner Brothers in particular came to take a stand against Nazi Germany, not only in business but in actual filmmaking; their Confessions of a Nazi Spy was released in 1939.⁸ Some, however, felt that Hollywood films had no business expressing opinions on foreign policy. In October, 1941, it was proposed that a congressional subcommittee be formed to investigate any propaganda disseminated by motion pictures . . . to influence public sentiment in the direction of participation by the United States in the ... European war."⁹ Although this issue became moot after December 7, it is reasonable to expect that certain dramatic situations in films appearing just before the United States' entry into the war carried extra resonance and meaning for viewers, even situations that did not appear to be specifically linked to the war.

The story of Here Comes Mr. Jordan,¹⁰ for example, makes no direct reference to the war, yet it does address a subject that was doubtless on people's minds as conflict loomed closer: sudden death and how it is experienced. In Jordan, a boxer named Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery) crashes his plane traveling to a championship fight. Because of a well-meaning but bungling celestial messenger, Pendleton is prematurely taken to heaven, which turns out to be a benevolent bureaucracy. Mr. Jordan, the top administrator (Claude Raines), discovers that the boxer should still be alive and helps him look for a new body, the old one having been cremated. In the course of trying bodies, Pendleton falls in love with Bette Logan, is murdered, comes back in yet another body, and in the end all resolves to a satisfying conclusion.

Jordan's composer Frederick Hollaender may have had a special interest in source music, as Manvell and Huntley's The Technique of Film Music comments on the striking and inventive use of diegetic music in Hollaender's best-known score, the music for the German film The Blue Angel.¹¹ Jordan, too, uses a prominent and clever diegetic device; Pendleton carries his "lucky saxophone" wherever he goes, including heaven. He can play only one tune, "The Last Rose of Summer," badly, and it becomes his signature theme not only for the audience but for the characters as well. For example, when Pendleton, in a new body, meets his former trainer Max Corkle, he convinces the old nian of his true identity by playing his saxophone. Pendleton's ghastly playing is an iiistint aural signal as well as an endearing touch.

The non-diegetic score, as might be expected, is also important and carries great dramatic weight in a death scene that occurs later in the story. After Pendleton loses his body at the beginning of the film, he takes up residence in the body of a murdered man. With Pendleton animating the body, the murderers believe they have failed and conspire to kill him yet again. Mr. Jordan warns Pendleton of the impending attack, instructing him to vacate the body. But Pendleton does not want to do this and, tired of arguing, decides to leave the room. Strings and French horns enter non-diegetically as Jordan forbids him to go; Pendleton leaves anyway and a shot is fired. As he falls back through the door, the music moves up the scale, increasing the tension. The descending-scale love theme returns, revealing Pendleton's thoughts to viewers, though he does not speak of Bette. The music swells, with a solo cello carrying the melody until Pendleton agrees to give up the body at which point the music suddenly changes to a flippant clarinet solo with harp, and Jordan's bumbling assistant steps into the room. In an instant, then, the mood changes from drama to humor. Here death is painful, and music giving it additional poignancy. Yet in the end it is temporary, only a brief interruption to the business at hand as the story's humor returns with cheerful music. Jordan's assistant complains that "now we've got him on our hands again," as the three prepare to begin the search anew for a suitable body. The music cadences briefly as the shot cuts to a new scene.

Pendleton persists in demanding his life back and is successful mostly because the hierarchy of power is that of an office bureaucracy, where even in heaven things can be done incorrectly-e.g. Pendleton loses his body prematurely. But the boxer also finds another body eventually, and he learns that, as in a bureaucracy, if one is patient, persistent, noisy and lucky, mistakes may possibly be corrected (this is heaven, after all). Here, as in many romantic supernatural films, the protagonist struggles against death and his status in the afterlife, rather than resigning himself to circumstance. In Heaven Can Wait (1943),¹² for instance, a likeable playboy dies and finds himself in hell. He recounts his lifestory to Satan, who finally sends him "upstairs" after hearing the tale. In It's a Wonderful Life (1946), James Stewart fights government corruption, attempts suicide in despair, finds himself "temporarily dead" and struggles to regain his life with the help of Clarence the Angel. The struggle of ordinary people against circumstance appears to be a characteristic of these films, and is another element linking them to the audience's experience of the war. Not only did Jordan, for example, not shy away from depicting death, it also showed struggle and triumph over impossible circumstances-a reassuring message for audiences living on the brink of war. In contrast, however, to the theme of triumphant struggle in these films, one of the most overtly political of the supernatural films, A Guy Named Joe, takes a markedly different approach.

A Guy Named Joe stars Spencer Tracy as Pete Sandidge, an American pilot fighting in the Second World War. Pete, "a regular Joe" (hence the name of the film), is killed in battle and sent to heaven, which is run by the military. Assigned to mentor a fledgling pilot, Pete makes trouble when the young man begins to court Pete's former sweetheart.¹³ The heavenly commanding officer speaks with Pete about his responsibilities and duties to the living. In the end, after further plot complications, Pete willingly accepts his role as mentor and guardian to members of the air force.

A strong message-or perhaps "attitude" is the better word-that I find in this film is a sentimental view of officers' and enlisted men's and women's lives, and music plays an important role in communicating this. At the beginning of the film, we see planes in the air, images that in other films might have been supported by emotionally intense, ominous, suspenseful scoring, but which here are accompanied by a gentle, lyric version of "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder" with strings and French horns. It is music that evokes warm, not anxious feelings.

Unlike Here Comes Mr. Jordan, in A Guy Named Joe death is not anulled or thwarted, but accepted. The fatherly commander who convinces Pete to accept his fate and mission uses, interestingly enough, a musical metaphor to make his point. During their interview, the commander asks Pete if he understands what they are really trying to accomplish. Describing their goal, he explains "It's the music a man's spirit sings to his heart.... [It's] The vision of a free man in a free world." At these words, strings and a harp enter non-diegetically (though diegesis may be implied) to illustrate the metaphor with an additional "heavenly halo" effect. At Pete's words' "I've heard it [the music].... I used to try to explain it to some kids," a children's choir enters, not only literally illustrating the words about children, but further weighting the musical reference to heaven by adding an "angel choir" to the "halo." We may view the use of these devices as exaggerated, but it probably was quite effective in 1944 when many viewers had already lost their loved ones in the three years of the war effort, and the reasurrance that heaven was on their side was a comforting thought.

When discussing what constitutes "propaganda" in film, scholars often focus on "intentionality," the question of whether a message is intentionally placed in a film by the makers or whether anything in a film can be considered propaganda of some sort and therefore present whether makers intended it or not.¹⁴ Most certainly the strong positive emphasis on the military in A Guy Named Joe - with the heavenly forces literal extensions of the Allied forces - was a view deliberately placed there. I believe that the message's intentionality and force constitute propaganda in this instance.

The film, however, may also communicate other messages, depending on the viewer. Dalton Trumbo -- who, ironically, later became one of the Hollywood Ten and was blacklisted as a communist -- wrote the screenplay for Joe; one writer believes that films of the Hollywood Ten often emphasize brotherhood and he refers to "the world soul view" in A Guy Named Joe.¹⁵ Another states that the purpose of Joe was "to emphasize the need for self-discipline."¹⁶ The main political message, however, is clearly stated by the heavenly commanding officer, "That's what we're fighting for ... the freedom of mankind rushing to greet the future on wings." It is important to note this message, with the added impact of strong musical support, because the film was so popular at the time, being ranked number eight in the "10 Best" list compiled by Film Daily.¹⁷ Many watched A Guy Named Joe, listened to it, and absorbed its message.

In this paper I have suggested several of the ways romantic supernatural films were used by filmmakers to guide viewers into accepting distinct views and inter- pretations of war and death, and how music was used in the context of these films. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was made before the United States had entered the war but was almost certainly influenced by it. Without actually mentioning the conflict, Jordan reflects the concerns and anxieties of viewers at the time, reassuring them of a life after death and suggesting that it was possible to struggle and prevail against impossible circumstances. A Guy Named Joe, on the other hand, was made after the U.S. had entered the war, and the story is set during the conflict. This film too, reassured viewers of an afterlife, while in addition emphasizing the moral goodness of U.S. forces (who receive guidance directly from heaven, no less) and advocating acceptance of death rather than struggle against it.

Thinking about these issues is important as viewpoints, and messages, of course, are still conveyed via film and are often accepted without question or without a clear understanding that music is tremendously important in this process. One need only recall the battle scenes from Alexander Nevsky and Henry V, or Star Wars and Mars Attacks in which good and evil are depicted musically. Further awareness of how scores are used in film can only increase viewers' awareness of what they are being asked to accept, and therefore allow them to make more informed, conscious decisions of what ideas they will accept. Greater awareness and knowledge of film scores will also give audiences a better sense of the skill and ability that goes into composing music for film-an area of composition that awaits our greater attention and appreciation.

NOTES
1. Romantic supernatural films seemed to reflect the anxieties of Americans before and during World War II. It would be interesting to speculate what issues and anxieties (e.g., economic?) may have triggered a revival of this genre in the late 1980s with such films as Beetlejuice (1988), Always (1989), High Spirits (1989), Ghost (1990), Heart and Souls (1993), Angels in the Outfield (1994) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), to mention only a few.

2. Leslie Halliwell quoted in John Walker, ed., Halliwells Film and Video Guide, revised and updated, s.v. "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (New York: Harper, 1997), 340. 3. The American Heritage Dictionary gives several definitions for the word "propaganda." I use the second here: "Material disseminated by the advocates of a doctrine or cause: 'the selected truths, exaggerations, and lies of wartime propaganda,'" The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd ed., s.v. "propaganda." The exact definition of propaganda continues to be debated in film studies, but the deliberate dissemination of ideas or information ("intentionality") continues to be a fundamental trait. See, e.g., Dan Nimmo, "Political Propaganda in the Movies: A Typology," in John Combs, ed. Movies and Politics: The Dynamic Relationship (Lexington, KY.: University Press of Kentucky, 1985), 274-277.

4. For an especially helpful discussion of diegetic/non-diegetic music, see Claudia Gorbman, Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Universicy Press, 1987), 11-30.

5. I developed the idea of parallel illustration out of my paper "Plainchant for the Pictures: The 'Dies Irae' in Film Scores," presented at the conference, The Middle Ages in Popular Culture held at McMasters University, Hamilton, Ontario, March 29- 31, 1996.

6. I do not suggest, however, that filmmakers normally think of scores in the same way. Filmmakers are aware of leitmotives, and therefore do sometimes think of the score as running parallel to the narrative and images. Many film cues (sections of music) and diegetic pieces, however, are not constructed around recurrent themes. From the literature, it is not readily apparent that filmmakers always consider these cues to be parallel, and potentially equal in importance to, the story and images in the way that cues with recurrent themes are.

7. "Many scholars ... have demonstrated that movies, whether their manifest con- tent is political or not, send messages that are political," Nimmo, "Political Propaganda," 279.

8. In 1936 Warners' chief salesman in Germany, Joe Kaufman, was beaten to death in a Berlin alley by Nazi thugs. After this, Warner Brothers studios began to take a stand against German Fascism. Colin Schindler, Hollywood Goes to War (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), 9.

9. Senate Resolution 152. See Schindler, Hollywood Goes to War, 31 and Brock Garland, War Movies (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1987), 4.

10. Here Comes Mr. Jordan is based on the play Halfway to Heaven by Harry Segall. Directed bv Alexander Hall for Columbia Studios, Jordan became one of the big hits of the year, ranking number five on the "1O Best" list of Film Daily, as well as number six on The New York Times and number seven on the National Board of Review "10 Best" lists. Alan Fetrow, Feature Films, 1940-49 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1994), 201. This film was remade in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait, starring Warren Beatty and James Mason.

11. Roger Manvell and John Huntley, The Technique of Film Music, revised and enlarged by Richard Arnell and Peter Day (London: Focal Press limited, 1975), 46. Hollaender's American scores include the music for One Hundred Men and a Girl, Androcles and the Lion, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr.T. Sabrina, and We're No Angels.

12. This film was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, with a score by Alfred Newman (not to be confused with the remake of Jordan from 1978 mentioned earlier).

13. A Guy Named Joe was an MGM production with Music by Herbert Stothart, who besides co-writing the operetta "Rose Marie" with Rudolph Friml, scored many films including Anna Karenina, Mutiny on the Bounty, A Night at the Opera, A Tale of Two Cities, Mrs. Miniver and the background score for The Wizard of Oz to name only a few. The director of The Wizard o Oz, Victor Fleming, also directed A Guy Named Joe, so composer and director had met previously. Everett Riskin, who produced Here Comes Mr. Jordan, also produced this film. The script was written by Dalton Trumbo, who, in 1947, was sentenced to a jail term "for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about their alleged membership in the Communist party." Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., S.V. "Dalton Trumbo" (New York: Harper, 1994), 1365. A Guy Named Joe was remade in 1989 as Always, featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter.

14. See especially John Combs, "Introduction: Understanding the Politics of Movies, and Nimmo, "Political Propaganda."

15. Bernard F. Dick, The Star-Spangled Screen: The American World War II Film (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1985), 222.

16. Schindler, Hollywood Goes to War, 76.

17. A Guy Named Joe eventually became one of the twenty-five top grossing films of 1943-44. It also helped make a hit of the song "I'll Get By (as Long as I Have You)" by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk, composed sixteen years earlier. Fetrow, Feature Films, 189.

Linda Schubert holds a Ph.D. in musicology/music history from the University of Michigan. Her area of study is film music and in particular how it is used to shape people's conceptions of history and current events. At present she is an independent scholar working in Los Angeles and affiliated with UCLA.

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Updated 9/22/97