Category Archives: 1938

Holiday (1938)

Posted on November 20, 2013 | 4 comments

Holiday
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman from the play by Philip Barry
1938/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing

 

[box]Linda Seton: For the love of Pete… it’s the witch and Dopey![/box]

The other Grant/Hepburn pairing for 1938 is another comedy, but in a more sophisticated vein.

Johnny Case (Cary Grant) is a fun-loving sort who has worked all his life.  His plan is to save enough money to take a long holiday from working to figure who he is and what he wants from life.  While on a skiing trip, he meets beautiful Julia Seton and they fall in love. When they return to New York, he discovers that Julia comes from one of the wealthiest families in the city.  Her father places a large stock in breeding, money, and decorum. Julia can wrap dad around her little finger but her sister Linda (Katharine Hepburn) is miserable in the stuffy atmosphere of their mansion and her brother Ned (Lew Ayres) has taken to drink as a way out.

Mr. Seton finally gives his approval to an alliance with the working class Case when he finds that he has been doing well at a financial firm.  Seton plans to announce the engagement at a huge fancy New Years Eve party.  At the same time, Linda is hosting a party for one in the “playroom” of the mansion.  Gradually, Johnny’s old friends Professor Nick Potter (Edward Everett Horton) and his wife Susan (Jean Dixon) join her, along with her brother Ned.  Things come to a head when Case discovers his deal at the firm has made a killing on the stock market and he can at last afford to take his holiday.

This is a really entertaining film.  All the acting is quite wonderful.  Both Grant and Horton excel in nuanced, serious parts.  The standout for me, however, is Ayres.  I always lament that we don’t see enough of him in major Hollywood movies.   The plot moves much too fast with respect to the shifting relationships but who expected reality in the movies? The dialogue sparkles.  Recommended.

Holiday was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction.  That mansion is quite something.

Clip

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Child Bride (1938)

Posted on November 19, 2013 | 4 comments

Child Bride Child Bride Poster
Directed by Harry Revier
Written by Harry Revier
1938/USA
Produced by Lloyd and Ralph Friedgen
First viewing

[box] Tagline: A THROBBING DRAMA OF SHACKLED YOUTH![/box]

This exploitation film is not a barrel of laughs.  In fact, it’s sort of icky.

Billed as an anti-child marriage message film, this is the sad story of little Jennie, played by 12-year-old Shirley Mills.  She loves to go to school where her teacher crusades against the underage marriages so prevalent in her backwoods community.  Jennie has an innocent friendship with young Freddie but has been cautioned by teacher that she should no longer skinny-dip with him.  (So Freddie turns his head during the creepy skinny dipping scene.)

Jennie’s father is a drunk and her mother had been having an affair with her father’s partner Jake.  While Ira is beating his wife for her infidelity, Jake seizes the opportunity to murder Ira and threaten the mother with pinning the blame on her.  Jake uses this leverage to force mom to consent to his marriage to poor Jennie.  Will teacher’s DA boyfriend persuade the government to change the marriage age laws before Jennie is deflowered? With little person Angelo Rositto (Freaks, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome) as the instrument of vegence.

Child-Bride-Still

 

The trailer for this movie, which I will not embed here, makes it pretty clear that the main draw was the skinny dipping and a few topless scenes with Shirley Mills.  The trailer has a couple of clips of women being whipped which do not appear in the film as well, just to make it abundantly clear what kind of audience it was trying to attract.  While the content is pretty tame by today’s standards, that doesn’t make the movie any less vile.

 

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You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

Posted on November 19, 2013 | 5 comments

You Can’t Take It with You
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
1938/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing

[box] Tony Kirby: …It takes courage. You know everybody’s afraid to live.

Alice Sycamore: You ought to hear Grandpa on that subject. You know he says most people nowadays are run by fear. Fear of what they eat, fear of what they drink, fear of their jobs, their future, fear of their health. They’re scared to save money, and they’re scared to spend it. You know what his pet aversion is? The people who commercialize on fear, you know they scare you to death so they can sell you something you don’t need.[/box]

My usual technique of Capra watching – pretending the whole thing is a fairy tale – didn’t really work with this one.

A.P. Kirby (Edward Albert) is a munitions dealer who has grand plans to buy up all his rivals (with a little assistance from the U.S. Congress).  His plan depends on his ability to buy up all the property surrounding his chief rival’s factory for some reason.  Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) stands in Kirby’s way since he cannot be persuaded to sell his house for any amount of money.  Vanderhof is a free spirit and prefers to live as a “lily of the field”.  He and his household are devoted to doing solely what they love to do, from ballet dancing to painting to illegal fireworks manufacture.

Vanderhof’s granddaughter Alice (Jean Arthur) is secretary to Kirby’s son Tony (James Stewart).  The two are madly in love and want to marry.  However, Tony’s parents look down on Alice and she won’t marry without their approval.  She invites the parents over for dinner to meet her family.  Every possible aspect of the event goes wrong.  With Spring Byington as Alice’s mother, Ann Miller as her sister and Mischa Auer as a Russian dancing instructor.

My high school’s theater arts class put on the Kauffman and Hart play and I am quite sure it was not so preachy as this movie is.  There is a strong anti-big business message and quite a bit of folksy home-spun philosophy coming out of the lips of Grandpa Vanderhof. It’s not that I disagree with any of it but it sure does weigh the comedy down.  The acting cannot be faulted, however.  I thought Edward Arnold was particularly good.

You Can’t Take It with You won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. It was Oscar-nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Spring Byington); Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Cinematography; Best Sound, Recording; and Best Film Editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WY9RAroTS0

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Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Posted on November 18, 2013 | 4 comments

Angels with Dirty FacesAngels with Dirty Faces Poster
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by John Wexley and Warren Duff from a story by Rowland Brown
1938/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing
#122 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Rocky Sullivan: ‘Morning, gentlemen. Nice day for a murder.

James Cagney is charismatic as a tough career criminal with a tiny spark of humanity deep within.

Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O’Brien) grew up together on the mean streets of New York.  When they are caught in a petty theft, Jerry escapes and Rocky goes to the reformatory where he learns the ropes.  Finally, Rocky takes the rap for a crime committed by lawyer Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) on the condition that Frazier will hold the $100,000 proceeds and hand it over when he gets out of jail.

Angels With Dirty Faces 2

Rocky goes back to his old neighborhood when he gets out of jail and looks up his old buddy Jerry, who is now a priest.  Jerry has been trying to straighten out a gang of teenagers (the Dead End Kids).  Rocky can get through to the kids but this unfortunately causes them to idolize him and his gangster ways.

When Rocky looks up Frazier to try to get his money back, Frazier is none too pleased to see him. As a consequence, many people end up dead.  Jerry gives Rocky a last chance to do the right thing.  With Ann Sheridan as Rocky’s girl and George Bancroft as a gang boss.

Angels With Dirty Faces 1

This film is worth seeing for Cagney’s exceptional performance.  He is a bundle of energy and makes Rocky a multi-dimensional character.  He is so good and basically likeable that the rest of the movie suffers by comparison.  Father Jerry is supposed to be the good guy here but Pat O’Brien takes a preachy tone that wouldn’t make anyone try to emulate him. Bogart is great but doesn’t have much of a part and the Dead End Kids have less to do and with less effect than in Dead End.  I had been looking forward to seeing this for quite a while and was somewhat disappointed.  Cagney’s performance is unmissable, however.

Cagney, Curtiz, and story writer Rowland Brown all received Oscar nominations for their work in Angels with Dirty Faces.

Trailer

 

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The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Posted on November 17, 2013 | 6 comments

The Lady Vanishes
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder based on a story by Ethel Lina White
1938/UK
Gainsborough Pictures
Repeat viewing
#127 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Miss Froy: I never think you should judge any country by its politics. After all, we English are quite honest by nature, aren’t we?[/box]

I simply love this movie and would rank it in Hitchcock’s top five pictures.

The story opens at a mountain inn in 1938 Mandrika, a fictitious European country where a varied group of tourists is stranded following an avalanche.  Iris Henderson i(Margaret Lockwood) is a spoiled young woman who feels she has done everything and so might as well get married to a “blue-blooded check chaser” back home in England.  Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) is an itinerant musicologist who irritates Iris mightily by conducting loud folk music sessions directly overhead.

The elderly Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), a governess and music teacher, is also returning to England.  Before the train departs the next day, Iris returns Miss Froy’s glasses to her and is struck on the head by a falling planter.  Dazed, Iris gets on the train assisted by the kindly old lady.  When she awakens from her sleep, Miss Froy is gone and no one will admit she was ever on the train.  Iris’s only ally is Gilbert, who is willing to play along even if he doesn’t believe her.  Before long, the two are enmeshed in a dangerous game of hide and seek.  With Naughton Wayne and Basil Radford as cricket enthusiasts, Cecil Parker and Linden Travers as an adulterous couple, and Paul Lukas as a sinister brain surgeon.

This film has a delightfully tight script that enchants me every time with its naughty humor and sly political commentary on the appeasement policies of the British government.  I also love Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood together.  They equal Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll (The 39 Steps) as playful antagonists.  The supporting cast is also great.  Hitchcock perfectly captures the setting of a moving train on a small budget.   Highly recommended.

The Criterion Collection DVD comes with an excellent commentary by film historian Bruce Eder.

Three Reasons to Watch – The Criterion Collection

 

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Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Posted on November 16, 2013 | 8 comments

Bringing Up Baby
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde
1938/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing
#124 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] David Huxley: Now it isn’t that I don’t like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I’m strangely drawn toward you, but – well, there haven’t been any quiet moments.[/box]

I enjoyed this quintessential screw-ball comedy even more than before.

David (Cary Grant), a very square paleontologist, is engaged to his assistant who is also all-dinosaur all the time.  While he is trying to get a donation for his museum, he runs into Susan (Katharine Hepburn), who is some kind of nut.  Susan falls head over heels in love with David and uses all her considerable powers to detour him from his wedding.  Her best ploy involves a prolonged chase after her missing pet leopard, Baby.  With May Robson as Susan’s aunt, Charlie Ruggles as a big-game hunter, Barry Fitzgerald as a dipsomaniac gardener, and Asta as George.

On previous viewings, I found Katharine Hepburn’s character manipulative and irritating. This time, however, I was able to relax and see Susan as David’s rescuer and accept all the scrapes she gets him into as part of the inspired silliness of the thing. Grant is just great. He is a master of prat-falls and so good at looking ridiculous in all his strange get-ups.  All the character actors are at their goofy best.  Truly a must-see.

The DVD I rented included a good commentary by Peter Bogdanovich.  One of the things I learned is that Hawks based his characterizations on Hepburn’s relationship with the bespectacled John Ford.  Hepburn was apparently the only person that could get away with ribbing Ford on the set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-EkAb1h2OM

Trailer

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Welcome to 1938

Posted on November 15, 2013 | 2 comments

Europe was rapidly approaching total war in 1938 but on the other side of the Atlantic people enjoyed another year of peace and great movies.

Movie firsts in 1938 included the only on-screen kiss between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (in Carefree) and the debuts of Bugs Bunny and Roy Rogers.   In industry news, all the major movie studios were sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for unfair trade practices in monopolizing  both the production and distribution of motion pictures. Eventually, the case reached the US Supreme Court in a decision against the movie studios.  The California Child Actor’s Bill, better known as the Coogan Law, was enacted. It required that fifteen percent of a child actor’s earnings be set aside in a trust that could not be tapped without a court order until the child came of age.

In U.S. news, Orson Welles’ 60 minute adaptation of the H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds was broadcast. Its airing caused panic in various parts of the US when listeners believed a real Martian alien invasion was occurring. A giant hurricane slammed into the east coast with little or no warning leaving 63,000 people homeless and some 700 dead.  Crowds cheered when Germany’s Max Schmeling was defeated by a knock out in the first round by the great Joe Louis for the heavyweight championship.  Action Comics #1 was published featuring Superman for the first time.  Wrong Way Corrigan took off by plane from New York, ostensibly heading for California. He landed in Ireland instead.

America was still recovering from the Depression.  A recession hit which caused unemployment to rise back to 19%. A  federal minimum wage law went into effect providing a minimum wage of 40 cents per hour for a 44 hour working week.  Averages wages per year were $1,730.00 and the cost of a new house averaged $3,900.  A gallon of gas cost 10 cents and a loaf of bread nine cents.

Berlin synagogue after Kristallnacht

Hitler ramped his persecution of Jews up another notch.  In Germany, the “night of broken glass” began as Nazi activists and sympathizers looted and burned Jewish businesses (the all night affair saw 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested). Jews’ passports were invalidated, and those who needed a passport for emigration purposes were given one marked with the letter J (“Jude” – “Jew”).  The Neuengamme concentration camp opened near Hamburg.

Germany occupied and annexed Austria.  In a result that astonished even Hitler, the Austrian electorate in a national referendum approved Anschluss by an overwhelming 99.73%.  German, Italian, British and French leaders agreed to German demands regarding annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.  Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to London declaring “peace in our time”. In December, Hitler was named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year”.


Short film with stills of all films nominated for an Oscar for 1938


All the Oscar Winners for 1938 set to the Best Song – “Thanks for the Memory” covered by Bing Crosby

A list of films I have gathered for 1938 can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/list/uWn6-I6INUE/

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The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938

Posted on March 23, 2013 | 3 comments

The Adventures of Robin Hoodadventures-of-robin-hood-DVDcover
Directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley
1938/USA
Warner Bros. Pictures
#114 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Second Viewing
IMDb users say 8.0/10; I say 9.0/10

Lady Marian Fitzswalter: Why, you speak treason!
Robin Hood: Fluently.

There are times that call for uncomplicated entertainment where virtue triumphs and true love prospers.  The Great Depression was such a time.  I would submit that the 2010’s are another, which may account for the current popularity of Superhero comic book fare.  Since I prefer my films without explosions, graphic violence or CGI, The Adventures of Robin Hood is where I want to turn when I’m looking for an action pick-me-up.

Adventures of Robin Hood

True Love

Whatever his personal life, in 1938 Errol Flynn was the embodiment of swashbuckling, wise-cracking virtue and perfect for playing Robin Hood as the merriest of the Merry Men. We meet him as he is rescuing poacher Much from summary execution by the coldly cruel Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone).  However, his grand entrance is shortly afterward when he arrives at a banquet hosted by Prince John (Claude Raines) and deposits the poached deer before the prince.  This is followed by a classic fight scene in which Robin fights off at least 20 Norman foes single handed with sword, arrows, and sheer derring-do.

adventuresofrobinhood with deer

Robin first sets eyes on the beautiful Lady Marian, intelligently played by the lovely Olivia de Havilland, at the banquet.  As a Norman, she at first despises this Saxon upstart but learns to respect and then love him for his loyalty to her guardian King Richard and his goodness to the downtrodden.  Robin is appropriately chivalric throughout.  In fact, a tenant of the oath taken by the  Merry Men is to protect all women whether Norman or Saxon.

Three Villains - Melville Cooper, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Raines

Three villains – Melville Cooper, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Raines

The supporting cast is a roster of some of the most familiar faces in ’30’s Hollywood. Each villain has his own consistent attributes from Claude Raines’s cynical, snide Prince John, to Melville Cooper’s cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham.  Basil Rathbone contributes his expert swordsmanship to the fabulous sword duel with Robin that closes the film.  Then we have the good guys.  It is hard to imagine a more perfect crew than Alan Hale as Little John, Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck, Patric Knowles as Will Scarlet, and Herbert Mundin as Much.   Una O’Conner hams it up as Marian’s loyal lady’s maid Bess.

Adventures of Robin Hood Climactic Duel

The bright glittering costumes and sets may not present an accurate picture of the Middle Ages but they do contribute to the storybook feeling of the piece.  Those who are looking for a gritty, nuanced portrayal of the Robin Hood legend would do better elsewhere.  Those viewers who are out for a good time can stop right here for 102 minutes of unadulterated fun.

Clip – The Archery Tournament

 

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