Unusual Suspects in 3-Crime Spree

The James Stewart we know and love on screen is earnest, brave, impossibly good.

But Mr. Squeaky Clean doesn’t have a perfect record, which explains why “After the Thin Man” (1936) is one of three films in the Orange County Museum of Art’s “Mis-Cast Stars” series, opening Friday.

“We all seem to get used to seeing certain stars in very specific ways, [but] often their careers were much broader than that,” said Arthur Taussig, adjunct curator of film for the museum. “The media over the years has tended to give us these images that narrow things down. This series wants to open things up.”

“After the Thin Man,” made early in Stewart’s long career, also features William Powell and Myrna Loy reprising their well-known roles as highball-sipping sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. Stewart emerges unexpectedly as a bad guy.

“He goes against 100% of the audience’s expectations,” Taussig said. “He’s been drenched in the Capra version of Jimmy Stewart, the ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ in which he played the selfless George Bailey, and the ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ Jimmy Stewart.

“Here, you can see something of his depth as an actor.”

“I Wake Up Screaming” (1941) casts song-and-dance specialist Betty Grable as a tough woman investigating her sister’s murder. All clues point to Victor Mature, the stud that Grable falls for.

“This movie is cursed with one of the worst titles in Hollywood history, but it’s truly a great film noir,” Taussig said. “This is [Grable’s] first non-musical role, and she’s surprisingly good. I think this is her only dramatic role. . . . She went right back to musicals after.”

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The series ends with “The Dark Corner” (1946), a crime drama featuring Lucille Ball as a no-nonsense secretary for a dim private eye. She uses her smarts to help him out of a murder frame-up. And, Taussig noted, “she has zero comedic input, zip. She’s completely straight and plays the brains of the operation. Now, that’s funny because in ‘I Love Lucy,’ she was always messing things up; here, she fixes things.

“We can’t take our eyes off her because of the associations we bring from ‘I Love Lucy.’ The movie is delightful that way.”

Taussig, who teaches film at Orange Coast College, will introduce each picture and lead a discussion after the screening.

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* The “Mis-Cast Stars” series opens Friday at 6:30 p.m. with “I Wake Up Screaming” and continues Nov. 14 with “After the Thin Man” and Dec. 12 with “The Dark Corner” at the Orange County Museum of Art’s Lyon Auditorium, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. $3 for OCMA members, students and seniors; $5 general. (714) 759-1122.