Tag Archives: 1934

Imitation of Life (1934)

Posted on March 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

Imitation of Lifeimitation of life dvd
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.

imitation-of-life-3

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.

imitation_of_life_1934 2

This was remade in 1959 with Lana Turner, Juanita Hall, Susan Kohner, Sandra Dee and John Gavin.

Trailer

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You’re Telling Me! (1935)

Posted on March 26, 2013 | 2 comments

You’re Telling Me!You're Telling Me DVD
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.

You're Telling Me 1

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.

Clip – the golf routine

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Tarzan and His Mate

Posted on March 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

Tarzan and His MateTarzan_and_His_Mate Poster
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.

Tarzan and His Mate

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.

Trailer

 

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The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Posted on March 24, 2013 | 4 comments

The Gay DivorceeGay Divorcee DVD
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"

“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.

“Night and Day”

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Twentieth Century

Posted on March 19, 2013 | 2 comments

Twentieth Century
PhotoELF Edits: 2009:12:07 --- Batch ResizedDirected by Howard Hawks
1934/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Second Viewing

 

Twentieth-Century-3

Oscar Jaffe worms his way into Lily Garland’s Heart

Theater empresario and master manipulator Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) discovers lingerie model Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard), changes her name to Lily Garland, and bullies her into stardom. They become lovers but his posturing and possessiveness finally drive her away to Hollywood. They meet again on the Twentieth Century Limited, which is taking Oscar from Chicago to New York after a flop and Lily from Hollywood to New York where she has signed to work with another director. The fireworks continue on the train as Oscar seizes on Lily as his last chance to get the financing he needs to save his theater.

Oscar Jaffe: I’m offering you a last chance to become immortal.
Lily Garland, aka Mildred Plotka: Then I’ve decided to stay mortal with responsible management.

This early screwball comedy, written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, is a lot of fun. Barrymore is especially good as the totally phony and ultra-flamboyant producer. Carole Lombard starts out sane and builds to a fever pitch of diva-itis after her character becomes a Hollywood star. Roscoe Karns and Walter Connelly are excellent as Oscar’s assistants.

When we get the two characters emoting at full blast on the train, the histrionics can go straight over the top  but, even in those scenes,  there is the wry humor of the assistants to enjoy.  Separately both Barrymore and Lombard are hilarious.  I can imagine that John Barrymore had a grand time sending up theatrical producers.  I loved those crazy chalk marks on the floor and the whole concept of putting on the Passion Play on Broadway complete with camels and an ibis.

Clip – “Anathema, child of Satan!

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Maniac (1934)

Posted on March 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

 ManiacManiac DVD cover
Directed by Dwain Esper
USA, 1934
Roadshow Attractions
First Viewing

 

 

Dr. Meirschulz admires his heart.

Dr. Meirschultz admires his heart.

When he isn’t busy being a maniac, Dr. Meirschultz conducts experiments aimed at raising the dead. His idiot assistant, Don Maxwell, apparently owes the doctor plenty for taking him in after he flopped as an impersonator on the vaudeville circuit. When the doctor suggests that Maxwell shoot himself so that he can be an experimental subject,  Maxwell shoots the doctor instead. He then makes himself up as the doctor  and assumes his personality, becoming a maniac himself.   In the meantime, we see various young women bare their breasts (I suspect this was the raison d’etre for the film), a man does a astoundingly bad tranformation to a monster, and Maxwell eats a “cat’s eyeball”. There are several “educational” intertitles with clinical descriptions of mental illnesses. Clearly, nobody planned to have this thing passed by the Hayes Office.

Buckley (after getting hypo of adrenaline): Oh!  Stealing through my body! Creeping though my veins!  Pouring in my blood!  Oh, DARTS OF FIRE IN MY BRAIN!  STABBING ME!  I CAN’T STAND IT!  I WON’T!

At 56 minutes, I had at least 5 LOL moments so I count this as a success on the bad movie front. I often wonder if the people involved really knew how bad these things were and were playing up the cheese factor. The acting is just so over the top here that it’s hard to think the actors weren’t trying for that effect!

Transformation scene

 

 

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The Rise of Catherine the Great

Posted on March 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Rise of Catherine the GreatCatherine DVD
Directed by Paul Czinner
UK, 1934
London Films Production
First viewing

 

Catherine: “I am a woman like your mother and your sisters. I know that it is a bad wife who leaves her husband because he has been cruel. But it is a good mother who will fight everyone to save her children. You are my children. I come to you as the mother of all Russia.”

Empress Elizabeth of Russia (Flora Robson) is determined that her indolent, debauched nephew Grand Duke Peter (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) should wed a German princess. He resists this idea until he meets the lady in question (Elisabeth Bergner), who has loved him dearly since childhood. Upon their marriage, she is renamed Catherine. Sadly, Peter descends slowly into madness but Catherine stands by her man until his public humiliations become too much to bear. It is not giving too much away to say she goes on to become Catherine the Great but in this version the death of Peter is strictly against her orders. All poor Catherine was ever looking for was a little love.

"Can anyone love someone like me?"

“Can anyone love someone like me?”

It is impossible to watch this film without comparing it to Josef von Sternberg’s weird but wonderful The Scarlet Empress released the same year. That is definitely the superior of the two films primarily because Bergner cannot hold a candle to Marlene Dietrich.

However, if taken alone, The Rise of Catherine the Great is not half bad. Flora Robson is excellent as the randy but principled Elizabeth and, while Fairbanks, Jr. struck me as too bland at the beginning of the film, he really grew on me. Bergner, the wife of director Czinner, was a famous Austrian actress and this was her first English speaking role. She is competent but unfortunately her sometimes wide-eyed coquettishness and petite stature make her look like she’s playing dress-up in those period costumes. Speaking of costumes, they and the sets are lavish and wonderful.

Ending

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The Private Life of Don Juan

Posted on March 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Private Life of Don JuanCatherine DVD
Directed by Alexander Korda
UK, 1934
London Film Productions
First viewing

 

 

Lobby card featuring Merle Oberon and Douglas Fairbanks

Lobby card featuring Merle Oberon and Douglas Fairbanks

Don Juan: “All girls are different. All wives are alike.”

An aging Douglas Fairbanks plays an aging Don Juan in this pleasant comedy. Don Juan is tiring after 20 years in the saddle and when an imposter is killed in a duel happily attends his own funeral. The only problem is that when he wants to reclaim his identity, no one will believe him. Merle Oberon is top-billed as a fiery Spanish dancer although Benita Hume has the bigger part as a woman plotting to keep the Don as her own. I loved the Spanish flavored score.  Fairbanks looks pretty tired but carries the film with his humor.  He was a very good sport!  This was his last film.  He would die in 1939 at age 56.

Excerpts – scenes of Merle Oberon with Douglas Fairbanks

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The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)

Posted on March 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

3. The Mysterious Mr. Wongmr. wong dvd
Directed by William Nigh
USA, 1934
Monogram Pictures
First Viewing

 

 

Mr. Wong: “A few hours with the rats will loosen his tongue to tell the truth!”

Mr. Wong with minion

Mr. Wong with minion

Mr. Wong (Bela Lugosi) will stop at nothing to obtain the 12 golden coins of Confucius, which will allow him to rule the province of Keylat. A wisecracking reporter (Wallace Ford) blithely suffers one near-death experience after another to solve a series of murders in Chinatown in pursuit of him.  Lugosi makes perhaps the most unconvincing Chinese person on record, but he does exude a certain campy menace. This was a Monogram Pictures B-picture and perfectly serviceable for the bottom of a double bill.

 

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It Happened One Night

Posted on March 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

 It Happened One Nightit happened dvd
Directed by Frank Capra
USA, 1934
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Umpteenth viewing
1001 Movies – #86

 

It Happened One Night

Peter Warne: “I want to see what love looks like when it’s triumphant. I haven’t had a good laugh in a week.”

This is my idea of cinematic perfection as produced by Hollywood in 1934.  There is not one single thing I would change.  Of course, the leads are fabulous but every character actor was the best possible that could have been found.  Once seen, Roscoe Karns’ annoying Shapley, Alan Hale’s larcenous flivver driver Danker, and Walter Connelly’s autocratic but loving father will become old friends.  Capra, too, had a light touch which he was never again to entirely replicate.  My favorite part is “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” scene on the bus.

66 movies I hope to watch for 1934:  http://www.imdb.com/list/fmXidXs5FOE/

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