Majolica in the Movies: On Borrowed Time (1939)

On Borrowed Time is a fantasy film about an old man trying to delay Death from taking him away from his family. The movie is another from the greatest of movie studios MGM made during what is arguably the finest year of the golden age of film studios, 1939. The old man is played by Lionel Barrymore of the great acting Barrymore dynasty. The personification of Death is played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

Originally a novel by Lawrence Watkin which was  later turned into a successful Broadway play by Paul Osborn the story is a reimagining of one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, “The Pardoner’s Tale.”

On Borrowed Time novel

Playbill page from the original 1938 Broadway 

production of On Borrowed Time

The plot is unusual. The old man and his wife are the caretakers of their grandson whose parents have died. The man is approached early in the film by a stranger representing Death, here called Mr. Brink, who asks him to follow him, giving no more explanation than that. The Barrymore character suspects the true motive of the stranger and succeeds in trapping him inside a magical apple tree rendering him powerless. The remainder of the movie involves Barrymore coming to terms with Death and how it fits into the fabric of life.

Lionel Barrymore, Bobs Watson, Elly Malyon, James Burke and 

Henry Travers in a scene from On Borrowed Time

Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Mr Brink

At one point in the film the old man and his grandson Pud, played by the always annoying Bobs Watson, are dining in their home. It is here where the majolica comes into view. On a mantle in the dining room are two majolica oak leaf and acorn platters and two Etruscan begonia leaves.

Bobs Watson and Lionel Barrymore in On Borrowed Time

For regular readers of this blog you know this isn't the first, or even the second time we've come across these majolica pieces in MGM movies.

Etruscan Majolica begonia leaf

Adams & Bromley majolica oak leaf and acorn platter

One of the Etruscan dishes was previously spotted in National Velvet. These oak leaf platters were seen in both  Lassie Come Home and Of Human Hearts. All four of these films are MGM movies from the golden era of film, 1930-1945. The set decorators at MGM certainly must have loved these plates to use them again and again. Still, I was a little surprised to see them in such a refined setting. They had previously appeared in movies with more rustic backgrounds. 

No question though that it’s always a fun surprise to spot these pieces in the background of movies from so long ago.

The film is available to see on both disc and streaming platforms. To view the movie trailer go here.

Majolica in the Movies: Of Human Hearts

Poster for the 1938 MGM film Of Human Hearts

You never know where majolica is going to show up, even if it technically shouldn't be there. The film Of Human Hearts is a 1938 movie directed by Clarence Brown from MGM starring Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi. It tells the story of a poor minister and his family set in Antebellum rural Ohio before and during the Civil War.

It follows a minister played by Walter Huston and concentrates on the ungrateful son he raises played first as a child by Gene Reynolds and in his later years by James Stewart. This movie dates from the period just before Stewart emerged as a major star in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939. The story begins around 1850 and runs through the mid 1860s. The majolica appears in the home of the minister in the early part of the story–a majolica oak leaf tray sitting on the family sideboard.

Scene from Of Human Hearts with actor Guy Kibbee playing a local merchant

Adams & Bromley majolica oak leaf tray

The reason I say that the majolica shouldn't technically be there is because it wouldn't have been made until at least 10 years after the period in which the scene is set. Perhaps the set director was ignorant or just lazy in placing it there. Since it was an MGM movie, it is most likely one of the same oak trays that appeared in On Borrowed Time the following year and later appeared in the studio’s 1943 technicolor movie "Lassie Come Home."

Scenes from On Borrowed Time

Scene from Lassie Come Home with Donald Crisp and Elsa Lanchester

It's very common to see the same sets, costumes and props in numerous movies as they were repeatedly drawn from the same studio warehouses. I make a game of actually looking for these kinds of things in old movies. There is a majolica clock in the film Gigi that has appeared in more MGM movies than I can count. There are even Web sites devoted to these kinds of things, like Recycled Movie Costumes.

Nonetheless, Of Human Hearts is a historical movie with some Civil War action sequences and something of a message picture, a bit unusual, but one worth your time if that is your cup of tea.

As an aside, John Carradine plays Abe Lincoln in the movie in terrible makeup, even for the time. My question is, why is Lincoln always played with a Northern accent when he grew up in the South?  Anyway, he gives Stewart as the ungrateful son, a tongue lashing one doesn’t often see portrayed in movies of the 16th President. Certainly a different take on Honest Abe.

For a clip from the movie go here.