Without Lying Down

Tonight's lineup on TCM is a series of movies about musical groups. However, the night ends a bit early before the start of tomorrow morning's programming block. They've got 75 minutes to kill, and are doing so with a documentary that first showed up on TCM 25 years ago: Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood, airing early tomorrow (Oct. 14) at 4:45 AM.

Frances Marion was a screenwriter in the early days of Hollywood, when it was not uncommon for women to take on roles that they wouldn't do so much of one the Production Code came into being and the studio system really became an assembly line. Quite a few women worked as directors, with Marion herself directing a few, and women were active in screenwriting to an extent they weren't after about 1935. But Marion was probably the best at it based on the output and quality of her work. This documentary isn't quite a biography, but more of a sketch of her career and a discussion of women in early Hollywood.

Marion grew up in San Francisco, and was 17 at the time of that famous earthquake. In some ways, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise for her. With her family suddenly in a bad financial situation, Frances had to go out and earn a living, which she did in various arts-related ways, such as creating posters for stage plays. At some point, she decamped to Los Angeles and its nascent movie industry.

Fame, or at least a reputation as someone who could do an excellent job screenwriting, came when she was asked to handle the screenplay for the Mary Pickford movie Poor Little Rich Girl, and Marion was one of the top screenwriters for the next 20 years, eventually moving to MGM and working closely with Irving Thalberg until his untimely death, which was a disaster for Marion professionally. TCM did a documentary on Thalberg quite a few years back which included a discussion on how Thalberg trusted Marion's judgment, specifically on a movie like The Champ which does not have the traditional Hollywood happy ending. But along the way, Marion wrote some outstanding screenplays, picking up two Oscars.

Uma Thurman does the narration, with Kathy Bates providing the voice of Marion when the documentary is quoting letters or other writings of Marion's. It's an interesting enough look at early Hollywood, although some of the reviews have mentioned that it's decidedly incomplete as a look at Marion's life. There's some mention of husband Fred Thomson, but the documentary doesn't mention any of Marion's other marriages. There's also the requisite "OMG, Hollywood did so much to minimize women's contribution" vibe as well. Yeah, we get it already.

Still, Without Lying Down is a good introduction for anybody who hasn't watched a bunch of other documentaries about early Hollywood and definitely worth one watch.