William Hopper Week 2/4

Note: This is the second of four tributes to William Hopper who played Paul Drake, Perry Mason’s private detective, on the greatest courtroom drama in the history of creation. When World War II began, Hopper left roles in B-movies and enlisted in the Navy. He became a frogman that specialized in underwater demolition and maritime sabotage. He took part in the Ulithi landing, missions on Peleliu and Angaur, and pre-invasion prep in the Lingayen Gulf and the Battle of Leyte. He won a Bronze Star. His wartime experiences turned his brown hair white. 

Over the Goal
1937 / 1:03
Tagline: “Exciting Thrills of the Pigskin Parade!”
[internet archive]

Most of the product of classic Hollywood was disposable stinkers. Therefore, in efforts to watch the Pre-Perry Mason work of Barbara Hale, William Talman, and William Hopper, we movie-goers will sometimes run across B-movies that force us to kiss off standards for a good movie and see where looking at the picture as a cultural artifact goes.

What does their humor tell us about Americans in the Thirties? Humor often arises from shared cultural experiences, such as college football.

In this sports comedy, a rich alum of Carlton College has willed his entire estate to the private institution if its football team can somehow manage to win three games in a row, something they have never done in the history of the pigskin program. The finances of the college are in such bad shape that even a one-time amount will do financial good in the short-term.

So it’s a disaster when its star half-back William Hopper meets a moral dilemma in the form of love versus football. His GF’s father, a doctor, has told her she should extract from Hopper the promise to give up football for the sake of his cornflake knee. Hopper makes his face do an insipid smile as he promises not to ever play again, lest he suffer never-ending orthopedic pain and complications.

We can see humor being used to reinforce cultural norms. When his roommate worms out of the half-back his promise not play football so he won’t be a “cripple for life,” the water boy says in mock-wonder, “Giving up football for a girl. Who would believe it?” No societal pressure back in the good old days to prioritize relationships, especially for men. Much societal pressure to play hurt, for the sake of the team and college.

The humor in this movie also turns on stereotypes of college kids. Nowadays college students don't provide the building blocks for vivid stereotypes, merely seen as anxious and depressed, lazily cheating with ChatGPT, living on junk food, and partying all night.

But back then the stereotypes were more various. Coeds are better students than college boys: Lucille Martin in this movie goes the Gobi Desert on a study abroad program.

College boys are more given to pranks, practical jokes, fighting, rumbles and fantasizing about coeds. College boys are always up for antics like kidnapping the mascot of the opposing team, in this case a bear named Imogene (warning: the chain around her neck will make post-modern movie-goers sad).

College students go out of their right minds when they hear swing music, because it brings out their energetic and rebellious spirit. College kids, in fact, are willing to start protests and demonstrations over any issue, at the drop of a hat. In this movie, they have a rally to persuade a half-back to play in the big game.

Not that the stereotypes are limited to college kids. Black people are portrayed as highly strung and easily alarmed. Country people are ill-dressed and cranky, though bumpkins will do as they are told if the orders are simple enough for them to comprehend. Lawyers will resort to high jinks in order to gain a fee. Cops, judges, and politicians cave in to powerful interests and ask how high when big shots say jump. Sports play-by-play guys will talk in overblown language (why affected talker Howard Cosell in the 1970s was ever thought something new has always escaped me).

The dopey water boy with the infectious smile and surfeit of personality is played by Johnnie “Scat” Davis. He played trumpet in the popular Fred Waring Band and can be heard on How'm I Doin’ on vocals. With undeniable screen presence, he gets two musical numbers in which to prove he has studied Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong as closely as Mick Jagger studied Tina Turner’s moves. Also of interest are Hattie McDaniel and Eddie Anderson in early movie roles.

William Hopper is rather bland. If this movie was his chance to grab the brass ring and become a star, he didn’t rise to the occasion. Legend has it his heart was not in acting, at least not in the Thirties, and maybe not in sports movies awash with clichés that were tired by 1930.