The Lost Patrol Directed by John Ford
1934/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing
The Sergeant: What’s the use of chewin’ the rag about something we might of done? Morelli: Right you are, Sarge! The Sergeant: Yeah, I know what you’re thinkin’. Perhaps I’ve done everything wrong! Perhaps this and perhaps that! But what I’ve done I’ve done, and what I haven’t, I haven’t!
A British Army patrol is on duty in the Mesopotamian Desert during WWI when its officer is killed by Arab sniper fire. Since the officer was the only one who knew where the patrol was headed, the men are lost. The Sargeant (Victor McLaglen) leads the men to a desert oasis where their horses are promptly stolen. The men hunker down to await rescue while under constant threat from Arabs. With Boris Karloff as an unpopular bible-thumping soldier and Wallace Ford as another of the men.
The rather depressing story did nothing to capture my attention. It was nice to see Karloff in a fairly meaty non-horror role. Unfortunately, his character goes mad and Karloff heads straight over the top. Victor McLaglen is always pretty good. Some nice photography of sand dunes. Meh.
Treasure Island Directed by Victor Fleming
1934/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Second or third viewing
Capt. Alexander Smollett: When there’s treasure in the hold, there’s fire in the fo’c’sle.
Old Billy Bones (Lionel Barrymore) turns up at the inn run by Jim Hawkins’s (Jackie Cooper) mother with a mysterious chest. Soon other unsavory characters turn up in search of Billy. Upon Billy’s untimely death, Jim discovers a treasure map in the chest. Gentlemen of the town hire a ship to search for the treasure. Before they know it, unscrupulous but loveable Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) has signed on as cook and brought aboard his pirate cronies as crew. Long John and Jim become fast friends and the adventure begins.
This movie was a ton of fun and I’m sure immensely popular with boys when it came out. I thought the style foreshadowed The Wizard of Oz, also directed by Fleming, in its storybook exaggeration and charm. The pirates are deliciously vile! I think those who enjoyed The Adventures of Robin Hood would like this.
Manhattan Melodrama Directed by W. S. Van Dyke
1934/USA
Cosmopolitan Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
First Viewing
James W. ‘Jim’ Wade: I’m going to clean out every rotten spot I can find in this city, and, Blackie, I don’t want to find you in any of them.
Blackie and Jim were childhood buddies. Both were rescued from a tragic steamship fire and then raised together by a man who was trampled to death at a political rally. Blackie (Clark Gable) grows up to be a gambler and tough while Jim (William Powell) grows up a lawyer and idealistic politico. Blackie’s main squeeze is Eleanor (Myrna Loy) but he eventually loses her to Jim who is the marrying kind. Jim becomes District Attorney and friendship and crime-fighting come into conflict. I think we all know where this is going!
I thought the script really let down the actors, who were fine. There were just one too many coincidences and everybody was a tad too noble for me to bear. But what do I know? This won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1934.
This was the movie that bank robber John Dillinger had just seen before he was gunned down in front of Chicago’s Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934.
Charlie Chan in London Directed by Eugene Ford
1934/USA
Fox Film Corporation
First Viewing
Charlie Chan: If you want wild bird to sing do not put him in cage.
A woman is convinced that her brother, who has been sentenced to death, is innocent of murdering the Secretary of the Hunt at a mansion where he was staying. Charlie Chan (Werner Oland) is called in on the case only three days before the hanging. Will he be able to discover the true killer on the grounds of the British country house? Need you ask? Also with Ray Milland as the condemned man’s attorney and Alan Mowbray as the owner of the mansion.
This is a pretty good entry in the Charlie Chan series. Charlie does without the assistance of Number One Son here. The DVD comes with a featurette in which various people argue that the Charlie Chan character, despite some stereotyping, was a positive development for the image of Chinese Americans in films. Up to then, Chinese were generally portrayed as either servants or evil doers. Charlie Chan was always the smartest guy in the room. It’s unfortunate that the times allowed him to be portrayed by a Swede, however talented.
It’s a Gift Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
1934/USA
Paramount Pictures
#81 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Second viewing
W.C. Fields plays Harold Bisonette (that’s Biso-NAY when his wife’s around). The hen-pecked Bisonette owns a corner grocery but dreams of moving to California and running an orange ranch. His uncle dies and leaves him the money to move his family West, much to their disgust. The orange grove turns out to be a bust but there is always a happy ending in a W.C. Fields movie.
Harry Payne Bosterly: You’re drunk! Harold: And you’re crazy. But I’ll be sober tomorrow and you’ll be crazy for the rest of your life.
I have been trying to figure out why Fields just isn’t funny to me. I think he lets each of his gags run on too long and telegraphs them too obviously. Also much of the humor relies on destruction, irritating noises, etc., which I find more annoying than comic. Finally this movie has a scene of food humor toward the end. I can’t help it, I just find anything involving making a mess with food more disgusting than anything else.
This is one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. The only reason I can find is that W.C. Fields is a name everybody has probably heard of. I now have seen this film twice and that’s more than enough for one lifetime.
Imitation of Life Directed by John M. Stahl
1934/USA
Universal Pictures
Second Viewing
Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert) is a young widow who carries on her husband’s maple syrup business to support her daughter Jesse. Delilah Johnson arrives on her doorstep looking for work with her own daughter Peola and proves to be a godsend. Bea goes on to use Delilah’s secret pancake recipe to climb to success first in the restaurant business and then as a pancake mix queen (under the Aunt Delilah label). Bea offers Delilah a share in the business but Delilah says she is not interested in money or in having her own home.
Delilah Johnson: What’s my baby want?
Peola Johnson, Age 19: I want to be white, like I look.
Peola (Fredi Washington) easily “passes” as white and struggles against her black identity, eventually disowning her own mother and breaking her heart. Bea has daughter troubles of her own when Jesse falls for Bea’s beau, Stephen Archer (Warren William), world’s richest fish scientist.
There is obviously quite a bit of stereotyping in this film. Poor Delilah seems to downright enjoy getting the short end of the stick in the eyes of the film makers. On the other hand, this is one of the few films from classic Hollywood to give black characters emotional lives of their own. And although Delilah is content to serve, Peola, while conflicted and full of self-loathing, is portrayed as a sophisticated complex woman. The performances of Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington are quite good and Claudette Colbert is sympathetic as Bea.
This was remade in 1959 with Lana Turner, Juanita Hall, Susan Kohner, Sandra Dee and John Gavin.
You’re Telling Me! Directed by Erle C. Kenton
1934/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing
Sam Bisbee: Stand clear and keep your eye on the ball!
When he is not drinking liquor out of a jug, Samuel Bisbee (W.C. Fields) is an optometrist and inventor who embarrasses his long-suffering wife no end. His daughter is in love with the son of a society family (Buster Krabbe) but they are having none of Sam. Sam’s hopes are further dashed when he screws up the sales presentation of his puncture-proof tire. Luckily, Sam meets a princess who solves all his problems.
The plot, such as it is, only gets in the way of the gags. Chief among these is a reprise of Fields’s golf routine from his 1930 short “The Golf Specialist”. Fields is hit and miss with me and, unfortunately, this was a miss. I smiled a few times but I didn’t laugh.
Tarzan and His Mate Directed by Cedric Gibbons
1934/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Second viewing
Tarzan: Good morning, I love you. Jane Parker: Good morning, I love you. You never forget, do you, Tarzan? Tarzan: Never forget… I love you.
Jane’s (Maureen O’Sullivan) ex-fiancee Harry Holt returns to Africa in search of a treasure in ivory in the elephant’s graveyard and in hopes of luring her back to England. She belongs heart and soul to Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), however. Tarzan agrees to lead Harry and his no-good partner to the elephant’s graveyard but balks at letting them take any ivory out.
I found this sequel far less offensive than the original Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), although it still suffers from some bwana-itis. The relationship between Tarzan and Jane, and theirs with Cheeta, is quite charming. However, the action palls too soon. It is basically Tarzan wrestling a wild animal into submission over and over again.
This film came out in April 1934 before the Production Code began to be enforced. Clearly, we would not have been treated to a fairly lengthy scene of Jane’s nude underwater bathing otherwise! Interestingly, Tarzan does not feel called upon to skinny dip when he is swimming with her.
The Gay Divorcee Directed by Mark Sandrich
1934/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Umpteenth viewing
Aunt Hortense: Be feminine and sweet. If you can blend the two.
Fred Astaire plays Guy Holden, an American dancer returning to London. He meets Mimi (Ginger Rogers) when she suffers a wardrobe malfunction at London customs. He isn’t too helpful and she gives him the brushoff. She meets him again at an English seaside resort where she has gone to sham an adulterous affair so that her husband will discover it and divorcer her. A misunderstanding leads her to believe that Guy is the hired correspondent.
“The Continental”
All this is just a good excuse for the dance numbers which are the whole point. The “Night and Day” ballroom dance is so elegant and sublime that this movie would rank high with me even if that was all it contained. However, we have the almost equally delightful “The Continental” number and a nice tap solo for Fred to “A Needle in a Haystack”.
I find Alice Brady annoying but the always reliable Edward Everett Horton is along as Mimi’s lawyer; Eric Blore shows why he was the most popular comic butler in Hollywood; and Eric Rhodes is hilarious as the egotistical family-man correspondent. I am crazy for Fred and Ginger. Lately, I have taken to watching Ginger’s face while they dance. She was quite an actress and puts her whole self into it.
The Adventures of Robin Hood 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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