Tag Archives: 1935

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Ruggles of Red GapRuggles-of-Red-Gap-Poster
Directed by Leo McCarey
1935/USA
Paramount Pictures

Repeat viewing

 

Egbert Floud: [pouring champagne] What you want is… is… is… some more of this imprisoned laughter of the pleasant maids of France.

This seldom mentioned treasure is one of the reasons I keep watching these old movies!  It has a perfect cast, a wonderful script, and is expertly directed by Leo McCarey.

The time is the Gay 90’s.  The place is Paris.  Charles Laughton plays Ruggles, the proper English valet to the Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young).  The Earl “loses” Ruggles to the rough-and-ready American Egbert Floud (Charlie Ruggles) in a poker game.  Mrs. Floud has taken a fancy to Ruggles because she thinks he can civilize her boisterous husband and improve her social standing.  Egbert immediately treats Ruggles as his equal, much to Ruggles’ embarrassment.

The Flouds soon return with Ruggles to Red Gap in Wild West Washington State.  Due to a misunderstanding, society thinks that Ruggles is a house guest of the Floud’s and they are hard-pressed to deny it.  In the meantime, Ruggles is introduced to American ways.  Then the Earl comes to visit and Ruggles has some decisions to make.  With Zasu Pitts as Ruggles’ lady love and Leila Heims as the local “bad girl”.

Ruggles of Red Gap 1

I smiled throughout this entire film, even when I had a little tear in my eye.  I think this is Charlie Ruggles’ finest performance, and I always like him.  Roland Young and Zasu Pitts are also perfectly charming.  And just watch Charles Laughton recite the Gettysburg Address!  This movie is great.  My highest recommendation.

Peter Bogdanovich comments on the film with clips

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Mark of the Vampire
Directed by Tod Browning
1935/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

First viewing

 

 

[box] Prof. Zelin: We must all die. There’s nothing terrible about death, but to live on after death, a soul earth-bound, a vampire. You don’t wish any such fate for your beloved.[/box]

This is a sound re-make of the famous lost silent horror picture, London After Midnight, which starred Lon Chaney.  It also shares a lot of themes with Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula.  The film begins in the same ambiguous Middle European milieu with the peasants all convinced that there are vampires in their midst.  Soon Sir Karell, a local aristocrat, is found dead with tell-tale marks on his throat and his body drained dry of blood.  The doctor names the cause of death as vampire attack but the police inspector (Lionel Atwill) is not buying it.  Sir Karrell’s daughter’s (Elizabeth Allan) wedding plans are disrupted and she goes to live with her guardian (Jean Herscholt).  A year later, the daughter is visited by a shrouded female  apparition on the terrace and a Van Helsing-like  professor (Lionel Barrymore) is called in.  With a mostly silent Bela Lugosi again in his Dracula cape as “Count Mora”.

To those that like this sort of thing, this will be a hell of a lot of fun.  The mechanical bats with their visible wires and the possums lurking in the creepy castle only add to the experience.  The plot doesn’t bear much scrutiny but I found it satisfying in the end.  The cast is top-notch and any over-acting works in this context.  The comic relief maid is less annoying than many such characters.

I watched this as part of the Hollywood Legends of Horror collection which gathers six MGM horror movies of the 1930s.  I particularly liked the commentary track on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKoia0nGKbQ

Trailer – soooo camp!  so fun!

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Directed by Henry Hathaway
1935/USA
Paramount Pictures

First viewing

 

[box] Lieutenant Alan McGregor: Why? Well – well, there’s some things they don’t teach you in military college – can’t, I guess. India is big, you know, there’s over three hundred million people, and run by just a handful of men. The – the job comes first. Like old ramrod. You can’t let death move you, nor love. And it’s like – and how can I tell you what it’s all about when I don’t know myself?[/box]

In this unexpected gem, Col. Tom Stone (Sir. Guy Standing) commands a regiment of the Bengal Lancers that is patrolling the northeast border of British India fighting skirmishes with rebels who hide out in the mountains (of Afghanistan?) .  Lt. McGregor (Gary Cooper) greatly resents the colonel’s by-the-books manner.  Two fresh replacements arrive, Lt. Forsythe (Franchot Tone) and Lt. Stone, the colonel’s son (Richard Cromwell).  Forsythe is a wise cracking pro but Stone is fresh out of Sandhurst and has a lot to learn.  To add to his problems, the colonel is determined that there should be no special relationship between father and son.   The tension rises when a shipment of ammunition is diverted by the rebels due to a miscalculation by Lt. Stone.

This was a really excellent film and even had me in tears at the end.  All the acting is good but I particularly enjoyed Guy Standing’s turn as the colonel who must balance duty with fatherly love.  It has the blessed advantage of no romantic subplot so it can concentrate on questions of honor and loyalty.  It also delivers on the action and bantering comedy fronts.  Warmly recommended.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVe9y1en6Kc

Trailer

 

An Inn in Tokyo (1935)

An Inn in Tokyo (“Tôkyô no yado”)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu
1935/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga

First viewing

 

[box] Kihachi: It’s awful to be poor.[/box]

Kihachi is unemployed and is raising his two young sons.  The little family is so poor that it relies on the boys catching stray dogs and bringing them in for rabies shots for a bounty to get money to eat and shelter from the elements in a common inn.  Sometimes they must choose between eating and shelter.  Despite this, the children manage to enliven this bleak existence with imagination and mischief.  They meet a woman and her young daughter at the inn and the children become friends.

Kihachi has the very good fortune of meeting an old female friend who helps him find work. The mother of the girl remains unemployed and Kihachi gets his friend to (reluctantly) help feed those two as well.  The older boy goes to school and all the children play together after he gets home.  The mother and daughter eventually fail to turn up.  It turns out the daughter is seriously ill.  Then Kihachi does something he shouldn’t to help them and puts his own family’s future at risk.

This is Ozu’s last silent film and one of his best.  It has been compared to The Bicycle Thieves in its focus on the effects of poverty on the dignity of the individual.  Despite the somber subject matter, the parts of the film that focus on the children are really charming. The clip shows a scene I particularly liked where the older boy tries to cheer up the father by pretending to serve him sake.  Ozu’s style had matured by this point and many of his trademarks are in place.  There is a very interesting ellision in which the boys lose a parcel and we completely skip any angry words from the father.  The acting, including especially that of the children, is top-notch.

I watched the film on Hulu Plus streaming.  It is also currently available on YouTube.  The print is not pristine by any means but that did not interfere with my enjoyment of this wonderful film.

Clip

Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)

Man on the Flying Trapeze
Directed by Clyde Bruckman
1935/USA
Paramount Pictures

First viewing

 

[box] Ambrose’s Secretary: It must be hard to lose your mother-in-law.

Ambrose Wolfinger: Yes it is, very hard. It’s almost impossible.[/box]

No trapeze here.  A day in the life of Ambrose Wolfinger (W.C. Fields) begins with two singing burglars in his basement.  We then follow the henpecked family man on his adventures in jail, at work, driving a car, and at a wrestling match.  All ends well, as usual.  With Kathleen Howard, Grady Sutton, and Vera Lewis as Ambrose’s obnoxious wife, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law and Mary Brian as his loving daughter.

The saving grace of this movie comes near the end when Fields actually stands up to his family and even punches his horrible brother-in-law!  Otherwise, watch the clip.  If you think Fields fiddling with his socks and putting off his encounter with the burglars is amusing, the rest of the film will be even funnier.  As for me, after the first minute of the clip, I am just waiting for him to get on with it already.

Clip – opening

 

The Informer (1935)

The Informer
Directed by John Ford
1935/USA
RKO Radio Pictures

Repeat viewing

 

[box] Gypo Nolan: And now the British think I’m with the Irish, and the Irish think I’m with the British. The long and short of it is I’m walkin’ around starving without a dog to lick my trousers![/box]

Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaghlen) is a big lug who is down on his luck.  He got bounced from his local IRA unit for failing to kill a prisoner.  He is broke and his girl has turned to prostitution.  One fine night he notices a poster promising a 20 pound reward for the capture of his friend, Frankie.  Shortly thereafter, he sees an advertisement for a sea voyage to America for 10 pounds.  He meets Frankie at a pub and, without much thought, is off to the British soldiers who patrol the streets.  Only problem is everything Gypo does is on impulse, he is mighty fond of the bottle, and the IRA will stop at nothing to root out the informer.

You can almost feel the dampness and cold of the foggy streets of Dublin when you watch this movie.  This is more “stage-bound” somehow than other Ford films but is nonetheless excellent.  Victor McLaghlen is wonderful.  You believe all the bewilderment, bluster, and violence of the character.  Whether this was a match of actor with role or a specific characterization I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter.  I have read, though, that John Ford was really rough on McLaghlen (making him perform without notice and hung over, etc.) to get the performance out of him.

The Informer won Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Score and was  nominated for Best Picture and Best Editing.  Is the first film and only film to win the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Picture by a unanimous vote on the first ballot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_c9JenLClo

Re-release trailer

 

Les Misérables (1935)

Les Misérablesles miserables poster
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
1935/USA
20th Century Pictures

First viewing

 

Jean Valjean: Remember to love each other, always. There’s scarcely anything else in life but that.

Hollywood adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel starring Fredric March as Jean Valjean and Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert with Cedric Hardwicke as the Bishop, Rochelle Hudson as Cosette and Francis Drake as Eponine.  The film makers managed to fit the plot into a 108-minute feature film by completely eliminating the Thenardiers, the innkeepers who mistreated little Cosette and went on to hound Jean Valjean.  The film, which benefited from cinematography by Gregg Toland, was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Editing.

Les Miserables 1

Two more different interpretations of Jean Valjean could not be seen than those of Fredric March and Harry Bauer, who played the role in the 1934 French film.  Bauer says very little and March can scarcely stop talking.  That is not to say March is bad, he is very good.  Laughton is outstanding and restrained, playing Javert as a neurotic seeking to compensate for his low birth by a rigid adherence to the law.  I could have done without the celestial choir when Valjean has his redemptive revelation.  On the whole, I can recommend this film, though if you are going to pick just one I would say to definitely go for the 1934 version directed by Raymond Bernard.

Here is a very interesting article on film adaptations of Les Miserables.  I was surprised there have been quite so many!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_Les_Mis%C3%A9rables

Clips from the film available at TCM:  http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/253377/Les-Miserables-Movie-Clip-Emile-Javert.html

David Copperfield (1935)

David Copperfield
Directed by George Cukor
1935/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Repeat viewing

 

[box] Mr. Micawber: Copperfield, you perceive before you, the shattered fragments of a temple once called Man. The blossom is blighted. The leaf is withered. The God of Day goes down upon the dreary scene. In short, I am forever floored.[/box]

An MGM adaptation of the Dickens novel, this film follows the life of David Copperfield from his posthumous birth to a childlike widow, to the cruel treatment by his stepfather, friendship with the Micawbers, eventual home with his aunt, and young adulthood.  This was one of those productions that allowed the studio to show off its vast resources of talent in the many character parts.  With Freddy Bartholomew as the young David, Edna May Oliver as Aunt Betsey Trotwood, Basil Rathbone as Murdstone, Jessie Ralph as Peggoty, Lionel Barrymore as Dan Peggoty, W.C. Fields as Micawber, Elsa Lanchester as Clickett, Roland Young as Uriah Heep, Margaret O’Sullivan as Dora and many, many more.

It is impossible to convey the story of the novel in a two hour movie and so the ending, in particular, seems rushed.  Freddie Bartholomew can be very touching at times and a little too much of a good thing at others.  That said, there are some wonderful performances here.  Basil Rathbone is absolutely chilling as Murdstone, quite different from his swashbuckling villains, and Edna May Oliver is hilarious as the intimidating but tender Aunt Betsey.  Finally, it’s a treat to see W.C. Fields as Micawber playing quite the devoted husband and father to his brood!  I enjoyed this.

Trailer

Captain Blood (1935)

Captain BloodCaptain Blood Poster
Directed by Michael Curtiz
1935/USA
Warner Bros

Repeat viewing
#88 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Dr. Peter Blood: Up that rigging, you monkeys! Aloft! There’s no chains to hold you now. Break out those sails and watch them fill with the wind that’s carrying us all to freedom![/box]

Captain Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is living peacefully as a physician when he is called on to tend a wounded rebel.  For his trouble, he is convicted of treason and transported to Jamaica as a slave.  Arabella (Olivia de Havilland), the niece of a wealthy landowner (Lionel Atwill), admires Blood’s defiant spirit and buys him.  Blood mightily resents this.  His medical skills make him a favorite of the gouty Governor of the island and allow him to plan his escape and that of his comrades.  The men soon turn pirate but Arabella and her uncle seem part of Blood’s fate.  Also starring Basil Rathbone as the French pirate Levasseur and a host of Warner Brothers character actors.

Captain Blood 1

This movie was the first pairing of Errol Flynn and the 18-year-old Olivia de Havilland and made them both stars.  It drags a bit in spots but basically is an exciting romantic adventure with thrilling sword fights and sea battles and dynamite chemistry between the two leads.  The magnificent score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold adds to the fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXb1QqmrRNc

Trailer

 

Mad Love (1935)

Mad Love
Directed by Karl Freund
1935/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Repeat viewing

 

 

[box] Doctor Gogol: [despairingly] I, a poor peasant, have conquered science! Why can’t I conquer love?[/box]

Brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) has become obsessed with love for grand guignol actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake).  Her husband is great concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive).  When Steven’s hands are mangled in a train wreck, Gogol attaches the hands of an executed knife-throwing murderer.  Maddened by Yvonne’s continuing rejection of him, Gogol then conceives an insane plan to get Stephen out of the way.

When this movie works, it works very well.  Peter Lorre is always interesting in this and sometimes simply brilliant.  The climactic scenes are unforgettable.  There is also some excellent expressionist camera work by Gregg Tolland.  The problem is, once again, that the film is bogged down by unnecessary comic relief by Ted Healy (ex of Ted Healy and his Stooges) as a reporter and May Beatty as the doctor’s drunken housekeeper.  Despite its flaws, this is well worth seeing just for Lorre’s performance in his U.S. screen debut.

Trailer