The Texas Rangers Directed by King Vidor
Screenplay by Louis Stevens; story by King Vidor and Elizabeth Hill
1936/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing
[box] Wahoo Jones: Looks like you got me, Sam, but I’ll lay my cards on the table. I’ll shoot straight.
Sam McGee: [shooting Wahoo under the table] So will I.[/box]
This is an entertaining western from an “A” team at Paramount.
Jim Hawkins (Fred MacMurray), ‘Wahoo’ Jones (Jack Oakie), and Sam McGee (Lloyd Nolan) are a gang of friends who run a con setting up stage-coach robberies. Jim and Wahoo get split off from Sam and head off to Texas to find him. There they discover that their old con won’t work due to the vigilance of the Texas Rangers. Figuring they can’t beat ’em, Jim and Wahoo join up. They figure they may get inside info that will allow them to pull off some jobs. But as time goes on, they begin to make friends within the force. Will they be able to switch sides when opportunity calls? With Jean Parker as the love interest.
I thought this was an OK way to spend an afternoon. I always enjoy Jack Oakie – his turn as Napolini is one of my favorite parts of The Great Dictator – and he is good here.
Mary of Scotland Directed by John Ford and Leslie Godwins (uncredited)
Written by Dudley Nichols from the play by Maxwell Anderson
1936/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing
[box] Mary, Queen of Scots: I have loved as a woman loves, lost as a woman loses… My son shall sit on the throne! My son shall rule England! Still, still, I win![/box]
For some reason I just couldn’t get into this film despite its fine production values.
Katharine Hepburn plays Mary, heir to the throne of England, who returns to Scotland from France at the beginning of the film. She is immediately confronted by the hostility of the Lairds that have been ruling Scotland in her absence and Presbyterian firebrand John Knox and the emnity of Elizabeth I. Her one champion is Bothwell (Fredric March) and they fall in love. However, she is more or less forced to marry Darnley, who is second in line to the English throne, to solidify her claims. Things do not turn out well for anyone concerned. Well, maybe eventually for baby James.
This was based on a stage play and while the filmmaking is quite cinematic the dialogue remains stagebound and flowery. I thought Hepburn’s performance was uneven. She often overdid it but then would be radiant once more. I thought Florence Eldridge was perfectly awful as Elizabeth. I have to admit that the film is beautiful to look at. John Ford got a “Special Recommendation” for this at the Venice Film Festival.
For TCM clips go here: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/208648/Mary-of-Scotland-Movie-Clip-Another-Sovereign.html
Rembrandt Directed by Alexander Korda
Written by Carl Zuckmayer, June Head, and Lajos Biró
1936/UK
London Film Productions
Repeat viewing
Rembrandt van Rijn: What is success? A soldier can reckon his success in victories, a merchant in money. But my world is insubstantial. I live in a beautiful, blinding, swirling mist.
This is a very good biography of the painter with a fine performance by Charles Laughton and beautiful costumes and art direction.
The story follows Rembrandt from about the time he lost his beloved wife Saska after his “The Night Watch” met with ridicule. We see Rembrandt struggle with poverty and a nagging mistress (Gertrude Lawrence) while he continues to pursue a vision that few share. He finds contentment toward the end of his life despite bankruptcy through the love and inspiration of former scullery maid Hendrickje (Elsa Lancaster).
Charles Laughton is convincing as Rembrandt. In the course of portraying the painter, he also has the opportunity to movingly read some selections from the Bible. But the real star for me was the production design. The settings, lighting, and costumes call to mind not only several Rembrandt masterpieces but works of other Dutch Masters such as Brueghel and Vermeer. Recommended.
The Charge of the Light Brigade Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh inspired by the poem by Tennyson
1936/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing
[box] When can their glory fade?/ O the wild charge they made!/ All the world wonder’d./ Honor the charge they made!/ Honor the Light Brigade,/ Noble six hundred! — Alfred Lord Tennyson “The Charge of the Light Brigade”[/box]
The war film is not a favorite genre of mine, but there is no question that this is an expertly made film of some power. I don’t know if I could have watched it, however, if I had known ahead of time about the number of horses killed in filming the Charge.
This movie does not make any pretense of historical accuracy. The regiment, characters, and incidents are all fictional. The only thing that actually happened was the Charge itself, though not for the reasons or with the results claimed.
It is India, 1856. As the movie begins, officials are telling war lord Surat Kahn that the stipend the British had been paying his father will cease. Kahn nevertheless continues to entertain the party with a tiger hunt during which Major Geoffrey Vickers (Eroll Flynn) saves Kahn’s life. We learn that the Russians would be only to glad to fill the gap left by the British.
Meanwhile, Geoffrey is engaged to his Colonel’s daughter Elsa Campbell (Olivia de Havilland). Unfortunately, Elsa has fallen in love with Geoffrey’s brother Perry (Patric Knowles) while Geoffrey was away on duty. When Perry tells Geoffrey about their love, he refuses to believe it. For one reason or another, Geoffrey is always dragged elsewhere just as Elsa tries to talk to him.
Kahn waits until most of the men at the British garrison are away at manuevers and strikes the hopelessly undermanned fortress. He offers surrender terms which the British are forced to accept and then massacres all the survivors of the initial attack except Elsa who is saved by Geoffrey. Later, Geoffrey’s regiment is sent to the Crimea because it is there that they will find Kahn and, with luck, exact vengeance. With David Niven as an officer, Donald Crisp as Elsa’s father, and just about every middle-aged British character actor in Hollywood at the time.
I liked this quite a bit. All the acting was excellent and Michael Curtiz kept the action rolling along at a good pace. The story picks up a lot when the focus shifts away from the love triangle to the fighting. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. resorted to very cruel measures to get realistic battle footage.
Dozens of horses were killed during the making of this picture due to the use of trip wires in the Charge sequence. This led to action by Congress to ensure the safety of animals in filmaking and the ASPCA to ban trip wires in its guidelines. Because of the public outcry about the scene, the film was never re-released by Warner Brothers.
After I read about this, I kept thinking about how awful it was to take an animal who had been trained to trust and obey its rider knowingly into harm’s way. So sad.
Winds of the Wasteland Directed by Mack V. Wright
Written by Joseph F. Poland
1936/USA
Republic Pictures
First viewing
[box]Larry Adams: Who ever heard of sending messages over a piece of wire?[/box]
This otherwise forgettable B Western again demonstrates John Wayne’s innate star power.
The pony express is shutting its doors and rider John Blair (Wayne) must find a new line of work. He decides to start a stagecoach line. Evil Cal Drake sells him a stagecoach and one of his lines – which goes to a ghost town, population 2. Not to be deterred, Blair single-handedly resurrects the town and prepare to compete with Drake in a race to win a lucrative government mail contract. The rest should be obvious. Plenty of fist fights and gun battles and a little humor. No winds; no wasteland.
Among the many actors in this who appear to be reading their lines for the first time, Wayne is completely natural. Although I never agreed with his politics, in later years I have had to admit that the Duke definitely had something.
Clip – stagecoach battle (colorized – I was able to watch in black and white)
Gold Diggers of 1937 Directed by Lloyd Bacon; Musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley
Written by Warren Duff et al
1936/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing
[box] Genevieve Larkin: It’s so hard to be good under the capitalist system.[/box]
The Gold Digger series has been slowly transitioning from the back stage musical to the musical comedy. The transition is almost complete in this entry, not necessarily to the benefit of the film.
Rosmer Peck (Dick Powell) is a struggling life insurance salesman who would rather be a Broadway star. Norma Perry (Joan Blondell) is an out-of-work chorus girl who decides to get a regular paying job. They meet cute on a train and Rosmer gets Norma a job with his company. It is love at first sight but Rosmer is broke.
Norma’s friend Genevieve (Glenda Farrell) is still trying to make a career in show business and gets friendly with an assistant of Broadway producer J.J. Hobart (Victor Moore). The assistant and his crony have misappropriated Hobart’s money. Genevieve comes up with the idea of buying life insurance on hypochondriac Hobart with the thought that he will die soon (hilarious, I know). Rosmer sells Hobart a million dollar policy, the commissions on which will allow him to marry Norma. When Hobart passes the medical exam for the policy, he gets a new lease on life causing Genevieve and her friends to take action.
This is almost a straight musical comedy with most of the numbers sung by Dick Powell in the course of the plot. There is one production number at the end as part of the obligatory “let’s put on a show” effort. Neither the routines nor the comedy is good enough to make this a must see. Dick Powell and Joan Blondell retain their enormous charm, however.
Dimples Directed by William A. Seiter
Written by Arthur Sheekman and Ned Perrin from an idea by Nunnally Johnson
1936/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing
[box] Prof. Eustace Appleby: I was quite a matinee idol in those days, you know. I still get letters from ladies in the towns where I played.
Dimples: Yes, landladies.[/box]
“Dimples” (Shirley Temple) is an urchin dancing on the streets of 1850 New York for pennies under the tutelage of her loveable con-artist/thief grandfather (Frank Morgan). When she dances for a society party, the hostess Mrs. Drew (Helen Westley) falls in love with her and wants to adopt her. But Dimples doesn’t really want to leave her grandfather. There is a subplot that involves Mrs. Drew’s nephew who wants to put on a production of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Dimples ends up playing Little Eva in that, among a cast of black-faced actors. The whole thing ends in a minstrel show number. With Stepin Fetchit as grandfather’s servant.
Shirley Temple with Frank Morgan
This is mediocre when it isn’t offensive. Shirley has lost a lot of her uncalculated charm and the songs aren’t memorable.
Fury Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Bartlett Corbett and Fritz Lang based on a story by Norman Krasna
1936/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing
Joe Wilson: I’ll give them a chance that they didn’t give me. They will get a legal trial in a legal courtroom. They will have a legal judge and a legal defense. They will get a legal sentence and a legal death.
Fritz Lang remained a very powerful director after he emigrated to the United States. This, his first film after he left Germany, hits on all cylinders and addresses some of the same themes explored in M.
Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) is an ordinary decent working stiff who is saving up to marry his fiancee Catherine (Sylvia Spencer). Catherine finds a better job in Washington State and the two part until they are more financially secure. Joe cautions his younger brothers to respect the law and ends up opening a gas station with them.
After a year of separation, Joe happily sets off to Washington in his car to marry Catherine. On the way, he is stopped by a deputy sherriff (Walter Brennan) on the lookout for a gang of child kidnappers. He is taken into the small town’s sherriff’s station where he is found to have peanuts in his pockets (peanut debris was found in the kidnappers’ abandoned car) and a five dollar bill that matches the serial number of the ransom money. The sherriff holds Joe in jail while he investigates further. In the meantime, the rumor mill manufactures a case against him that whips locals into an angry mob.
Fritz Lang delivered with a dark and cynical film that once again explores mob violence, this time from the perspective of an innocent man. Fury also warns Americans how easily the Constitution and system of justice can be ignored or perverted when faced by the raw emotion of the crowd. In fact, law enforcement and the courts are shown to be weak safeguards. At one point, a character remarks that foreigners are more familiar with the Constitution than native-born Americans because immigrants must study it to become citizens.
I just love the way the film builds from the initial romance to a gradual game of “telephone” like rumor mongering to explosive action and then to cold vengence. All these aspects are captured with Lang’s expressionist eye. I think this is one of Spencer Tracy’s greatest performances and the rest of the cast does a good job. The score by Franz Waxman helps to heighten the drama. Highly recommended.
I cannot understand why Fury is not currently available on DVD — I watched it on Amazon’s streaming service.
The Man Who Could Work Miracles Directed by Lothar Mendes and Alexander Korda
Scenario and dialogue by H.G. Wells from a story by H.G. Wells; screenplay by Lajos Biró
1936/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing
The subsequent meditations of Mr. Fotheringay were of a severe but confused description. So far, he could see it was a case of pure willing with him. The nature of his experiences so far disinclined him for any further experiments, at least until he had reconsidered them. But he lifted a sheet of paper, and turned a glass of water pink and then green, and he created a snail, which he miraculously annihilated, and got himself a miraculous new tooth-brush.” – H.G. Wells, “The Man Who Could Work Miracles”
Comedy and H.G. Wells wouldn’t seem to be an obvious match but it works out fairly well here.
A trio of demi-gods (including George Sanders in a very early role) bemoans the weakness of man. One suggests giving men limitless power and seeing what happens. The others are more cautious and convince him to experiment with just one man at first.
So our hero mild-mannered George Fotheringay (Roland Young with a Cockney accent) suddenly finds himself able to levitate a lamp at the local pub. He experiments and finds everything is at his command except the minds of others. When others find out about these gifts, they try to harness them for themselves. George’s boss wants an exclusive agreement to enable him to open a chain of stores. The local vicar (Ernest Thesinger) wants to eliminate poverty, illness, and war. But there are those with interests in the ills of mankind who are not pleased, including Major Grigsby (Ralph Richardson).
While it didn’t rock my world, I thought this movie was pretty entertaining. I always enjoy Roland Young and Ralph Richardson disappeared into his role.
The General Died at Dawn
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Written by Clifford Odets based on a story by Charles G. Booth
1936/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing
O’Hara: I like people too much to shoot. But it’s a dark year and a hard night.
This film has beautiful cinematography and art direction but takes itself a bit too seriously.
O’Hara (Gary Cooper) is an idealistic American who is working for the oppressed by helping the opposition to cruel warlord General Yang (Akim Tameroff). His mission is to deliver a large sum of money to Shanghai where it will be used to buy arms for the rebels. He is warned to travel by plane only and to exercise extreme caution. General Yang’s men employ Peter Perrie (Preston Foster) to help them part O’Hara from the money and to take it to Shanghai to rearm General Yang’s forces..
Perrie, who is ill and dreams of escaping China, enlists his very reluctant daughter Judy (Madeleine Carroll) to lure O’Hara onto the train. Yang intercepts O’Hara on the train and gives the money to Perrie. But Perrie has no intention of using it to buy arms …
I was really looking forward to this film as I have enjoyed the other Gary Cooper Paramount pictures from the 30’s. Cooper was fine as was most of the rest of the cast. The problem was with the screenplay which was full of little speeches about the rights of man. This significantly slowed the pace of the action. Also, the character actor Preston Foster has a much bigger than usual role here and used the opportunity to overdo things. It’s worth a look but could have been so much better.
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.
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