Drums Along the Mohawk Directed by John Ford
Written by Lamar Trotti and Sonya Levien based on the novel by Walter D. Edmonds
1939/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Films Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
Reverend Rosenkrantz: Any man failing to report to duty will be promptly hanged. Amen.
John Ford was on quite a roll in 1939.
During the Revolutionary War, Gil Martin (Henry Fonda) takes his bride Lana (Claudette Colbert) from her comfortable home in Albany to his farm in the wilderness in the Mohawk valley of Upstate New York. The couple struggles to survive amid attacks by Tories and their Indian allies. After they are initially burned out of their homestead, they take shelter as the hired help of a gruff but kindly widow (Edna May Oliver). The surrounding community is a comfort to both when Gil and Lena are separated in the fighting. With John Carradine as a one-eyed Tory, Ward Bond as a fellow patriot, Arthur Shields as a preacher, Francis Ford as a drunk, and Jessie Ralph as a neighbor.
I liked the slow pace of this which created a real feeling for the challenges of Colonial living. All the performances are good, though some of the minor roles tend to stray into farce. Oliver is especially wonderful. Once again, the stars are Ford and his camera. Many of the scenes, both outdoor and indoor, are framed and lit like paintings. This was Ford’s first color film and he adapts magnificently. One can sense the approach of a new War in the patriotic tone of the piece.
Drums Along the Mohawk was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Oliver) and Best Color Cinematography.
Each Dawn I Die Directed by William Keighley
Written by Norman Reilly Raine and Warren Duff from the novel by Jerome Odlum
1939/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing; Netflix rental
[box] Frank Ross: I’ll get out if I hafta kill every screw in the joint![/box]
This is an OK prison film with the always enjoyable James Cagney in the lead.
Crusading journalist Frank Ross (Cagney) is framed by corrupt officials for vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to one to twenty years. Frank’s reporter friends work on the outside to prove his innocence. The prison is a hell hole of sadistic guards. Early on Frank becomes friendly with gangster “Hood” Stacey (George Raft). Frank is a believer in following the rules but eventually gets so fed up that he assists Stacey with an escape attempt so that Stacey can help find the truth on the outside. With George Bancroft as the warden.
This is pretty standard prison film fare but entertaining. There are a couple of good scenes where Cagney cracks up reminiscent of White Heat.
Son of Frankenstein Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Written by Wyllis Cooper
1939/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing; Netflix rental
[box] Ygor: They hanged me once Frankenstein. They broke my neck. They said I was dead. Then they cut me down. They threw me in here, long ago. They wouldn’t bury me in holy place like churchyard. Because I stole bodies, eh they said. So, Ygor is dead! So, Dr. Frankenstein. Nobody can mend Ygor’s neck. It’s alright.[/box]
This does not measure up to the greatness of the first two Universal Frankenstein films but is entertaining and features what may be Bela Lugosi’s very best performance.
Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) arrives in the village of Frankenstein, Germany with his wife and young son to claim the legacy handed down by his father Dr. Frankenstein. The townspeople are hostile and suspicious and Police Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill), who lost his arm to the Monster (Boris Karloff) runs interference. Wolf becomes obsessed with clearing his father’s name and establishing his father’s greatness as a creator of life.
Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant Ygor (Bela Lugosi) was hanged for body snatching and pronounced dead but lived on with a broken neck. Ygor has kept the Monster, who lives on, hidden away to do his bidding in meting out revenge on the jury that condemned him.The Monster has been injured and is “sick” so Ygor enlists the help of Wolf in reanimating him. But, once awoken, the Monster obeys only Ygor …
I’m not a big Lugosi fan but I thought he did very, very well in this film – better even than his performance in Dracula. His Ygor is truly scary. Otherwise, the movie is fairly undistinguished except for the moving portrayal by Karloff of The Monster’s grief toward the end. The Atwill character shows the source of Kenneth Mars’s role in Young Frankenstein.
This was the last time Boris Karloff played the Monster in a feature film. Karloff played Dr. Gustav Niemann in House of Frankenstein (1944) and Baron Frankenstein in Frankenstein – 1970 (1958).
Lost in Translation Directed by Sofia Coppola
Written by Sofia Coppola
2003/USA
Focus Features/Tohokashinsha Film Company Ltd./ American Zoetrope/Elemental Films
Repeat viewing/Netflix Instant streaming
#1060 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2013 combined list)
IMDb users say 7.8/10; I say 8.5/10
[box] Lydia Harris: Do I need to worry about you, Bob?
Bob: Only if you want to.[/box]
This film perfectly captures the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land both literally and figuratively.
Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is an aging movie star who is in Tokyo raking in big bucks for making a whisky commercial. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a young college grad at loose ends in the city while her photographer husband is working. Their paths cross several times because neither can sleep due to jet lag and possibly other factors. Gradually, they find that despite their superficial differences they are kindred spirits and they set out to navigate the unfamiliar waters of Japan together.
I love the way this movie captures the joy of discovering someone who sees the world as you do – that awesome proof that possibly you are not insane. Bob and Charlotte really have nothing in common other than their nationality and their insomnia but they are both “lost” and that is enough. Though the story is minimalist, it can also be hilarious. The scene with the Premium Fantasy Woman alone is worth the price of admission.
I wonder what Bob was whispering to Charlotte at the end. I hope he was saying thank you.
Lost in Translation won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.
Clouds Over Europe (AKA “Q Planes”)
Directed by Tim Whelan and Arthur B. Woods Written by Ian Dalrymple; Story by Brock Williams et al
1939/UK
Irving Asher Productions
First viewing; streaming on Hulu Plus
[box] Mr. Barrett: Alright! Alright! Will you as a personal favour take that plane up?
Tony McVane: Well of course I will, you parboiled, pudding-minded, myopic deadhead![/box]
This 82 minute spy comedy/thriller was iPad bedtime viewing for me but it turned out to be better than that.
Secret agent Maj. Charles Hammond (Ralph Richardson) is on the trail of the cause of the disappearance of several airplanes bearing experimental equipment. One particular British firm loses two of its planes but the owner will not admit this is more than just coincident. Hammond smells a rat and pilot Tony McVane (Laurence Olivier) shares his opinion. A woman who works behind the tea counter at the airfield (Valerie Hobson) is grilling the staff with pointed questions. A couple of flights supposedly bearing a top-secret supercharger are used as bait for the bad guys.
Laurence Olivier, as usual, gets top billing but this is really Ralph Richardson’s movie. He is wonderful in a part that allows him to show a real flare for comedy. Olivier, of course, isn’t too shabby either. This is pure fun with the method of causing the planes to disappear bordering on science fiction. The nefarious foreign power remains unnamed.
The Rules of the Game (“La regle du jeu”) Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Jean Renoir and Carl Koch
1939/France
Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)
Repeat viewing/Criterion Collection DVD
#138 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Octave: I want to disappear down a hole.
Robert de la Cheyniest: Why’s that?
Octave: So I no longer have to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong.[/box]
I’ve been putting off writing this review because I just can’t find the words to describe how I feel about this film, which I consider to be one of the supreme masterpieces of cinema.
André Jurieux is welcomed as a hero after he has crossed the Atlantic solo in less than 24 hours. He is despondent, however, because his muse Christine de la Cheyniest did not meet him on arrival. She is at home with her husband Robert (Dalio) listening to the event on the radio. Christine considers André a friend, though her maid Lisette says friendship with a man is impossible. When Robert learns that the relationship is innocent he starts to feel guilty about his own affair with Genevieve and tries to break it off. André’s friend Octave (Renoir) tries to console the suicidal pilot and finally convinces Christine and Robert to invite him to their country estate. Genevieve also coerces Robert into inviting her.
Lisette is married to the De la Cheyniest country gamekeeper Shumacher (Gaston Modot), a situation that suits her as long as they are separated by hundreds of miles and she is free for hanky-panky. Shortly after arrival, Robert meets poacher Marceau (Carette) and wants to hire him to rid the estate of rabbits. But Marceau has long dreamed of becoming a domestic and Robert complies by taking him on as part of the house staff. Marceau soon begins a flirtation with Lisette, enraging the jealous Shumacher who chases him for the remainder of the film, sometimes at gun point.
The country visit includes two notable events, a formal hunt and a costume party including a kind of talent show. During the hunt, Nora spies Robert giving an affectionate good-bye kiss to Genevieve. She had been oblivious of the affair, which was common knowledge to everyone else, and now believes her entire marriage has been based on a lie. She lashes out during the party by selecting a random guest for a tryst of her own. A farcical chase and general mayhem centering on the upstairs and downstairs lovers ultimately ends in tragedy.
Robert refers to Octave as a “dangerous poet” and this is an apt description of Renoir especially in this savage examination of French society between the wars. It is a world where mechanical birds are treasured and real birds are shot, true love is punished and infidelity exalted, and crimes are overlooked to preserve the peace. I see Jurieux as a stand in for Czechoslovakia, a sacrificial lamb led to the altar to allow the status quo to persist for a few days longer. All this is hidden beneath the surface in a farce worthy of Moliere.
The flm making is exquisite.. Who can ever forget the barbaric hunt, a masterpiece of montage editting, ending in the extended shot of the quivering rabbit? The entertainment at the party is equally mesmerizing. I love the shot of Dalio showing off his huge triumphant “music box” as his world disintegrates around him.
I can and have watched this over and over with exactly the same interest, noticing something new each time. Is that not the definition of a classic?
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man Directed by George Marshall
Written by George Marion Jr et al and story by W.C. Fields (as Charles Bogle)
1939/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Whipsnade: As my dear old grandfather Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said “You can’t cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.”[/box]
I’m not a huge W.C. Fields fan, but this movie is a cut above his lesser work.
Larson E. (get it?) Whipsnade (Fields) runs a carnival sideshow and is arrears on wages to his performers. Charlie McCarthy complains constantly to ventriloquist The Great Edgar (Edgar Bergen) about this. But Edgar is not willing to quit once he sets eyes on Whipsnade’s lovely daughter.
Fields with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson
I found several of the bits amusing if not laugh out loud funny. The insults exchanged between Fields and the dummy are cute. Your mileage may vary depending on your feelings about Fields and/or Bergen, whose routines occupy about 90% of the film.
The Mikado Directed by Victor Schertzinger
Written by William S. Gilbert (libretto to the operetta)
1939/UK
Repeat viewing/ Streamed on Netflix Instant
[box] My object all sublime/ I shall achieve in time —/ To let the punishment fit the crime —/ The punishment fit the crime;/ And make each prisoner pent/ Unwillingly represent/ A source of innocent merriment!/ Of innocent merriment! — lyric by W.S. Gilbert[/box]
If you love Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, as I do, The Mikado as performed by their own company is not to be missed.
This is a send up of British Victorian manners disguised as a silly tale of happenings at the Japanese Imperial Court. The Mikado’s son, Nanki-Poo, has been sentenced to death for flirting. He is also in trouble for refusing to marry the elderly horror Katisha. He disguises himself as a Second Trombone and heads off to the town where his beloved Yum-Yum resides. She is engaged to marry her guardian Ko-Ko, who was recently named Lord High Executioner by the Mikado. Many, many complications and some very witty songs ensue.
Well, I could eat this up with a spoon. The only complaint I have is that some of the songs in the stage operetta have been truncated or cut entirely. The performances are spot on as could be expected from a production by The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. This was the first three-strip Technicolor picture distributed by Universal Pictures. The film was released by the Criterion Collection in a package set with Topsy-Turvy, the 1999 biopic about the creation of The Mikado, which I also highly recommend to G&S lovers.
“Trailer” for Criterion Collection edition – “Three Little Maids from School”
Union Pacific Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Written by Walter de Leon, C. Gardner Sullivan, Jesse Lasky et al
1939/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Monahan: That Jeff Butler doesn’t have all his brains in his holster.[/box]
As the Civil War draws to a close, Congress approves a transcontinental railroad. A corrupt banker decides to bet against the Union Pacific being able to connect with the Central Pacific Railroad starting in California before the line reaches Ogden, Utah. As insurance, he hires gambling hall operator Sid Campeau (Brian Donlevy) to keep the Union Pacific workers drunk and unproductive. Campeau is assisted by Dick Allen (Robert Preston). The railroad counters by hiring troubleshooter Jeff Butler (Joel McCrea).
At first, things appear rosy between Dick and Jeff as they were comrades in the army and Jeff saved Dick’s life during the war. Soon, however, they are vying for the affections of Molly Monahan (Barbara Stanwyck), who with her father is delivering mail and operating the telegraph along the line. The story proceeds to follow the love triangle and Jeff’s efforts to thwart the many dirty tricks played by Campeau’s men. The ending of the railroad story is told by history.
I love Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea and they and the other performers ensure that this, if a bit over-long, is entertaining. Stanwyck’s Irish brogue is actually not too bad, although I doubt if it would convince an Irishman. The FX with the trains are good. I went in with some trepidation but I vastly preferred this to DeMille’s Roman and Biblical epics.
Bulldog Drummond’s Bride Directed by James P. Hogan
Written by Stuart Palmer and Garnett Weston from the novel Bulldog Drummond and the Oriental Mind by Herman C. McNeile (“Sapper”)
1939/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus
[box] Tagline: HIS Greatest CASE…HIS TOUGHEST BATTLE WAS ON ITS WAY AS WEDDING BELLS WERE RINGING![/box]
The last installment in Paramount’s “Bulldog Drummond” series has plenty of action and some good performances.
The oft-jilted Phyllis (Heather Angel) has threatened to marry Drummond’s (John Howard) rival on the 11th if Drummond does not make her his wife on the 10th. Just as Phyllis is about to leave to see her aunt in France, the couple witnesses a bank robbery. The clever bank robber (Eduardo Cannelli) disguises himself as a painter and holes up in the apartment the Drummonds intend to set up housekeeping in. The rest of the story sees Drummond confront the robber and a pursuit of the loot across the channel. With regulars Reginald Denny and E.E. Clive as Algernon and Tenny and H.B. Warner replacing John Barrymore as Colonel Nielson.
This was one of the most fun entries in the series. Eduardo Cannelli, always so good as an Italian gangster, is given a chance to ham it up when the robber fakes insanity. H.B. Warner is absolutely perfect as the Colonel – it is hard to imagine anyone else in the role after seeing him. Be prepared for some surprises!
The film is in the public domain and several full-length videos are available on YouTube.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
Photographs and videos found in this blog, unless indicated, are not owned by me and are here only for the purpose of education and discussion. Media found here are not intended for any commercial purpose. Copyright infringement is not intended.
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