Monthly Archives: November 2013

Programmers of 1938

Posted on November 15, 2013 | 2 comments

While I was away I caught three pretty mindless “B” detective movies.  They were all OK for what they were.  For entertainment value, I would give Bulldog Drummond in Africa the edge over the other two — some witty repartee and a very young Anthony Quinn in that one.  Even Boris Karloff could not liven up Mr. Wong, Detective.

 Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938)
Directed by Louis King
Written by Garnett Weston from a novel by Herman C. McNeile (“Sapper”)
1938/USA
Paramount Pictures

First viewing

[box] Tagline: TRAILING A TRAITOR on DANGEROUS PATHS THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT! [/box]

Phyllis figures the only way to get Drummond to the altar is by taking away his pants

Trailer

Bulldog Drummond’s Peril  
Directed by James P. Hogan
Written by Stuart Palmer from a novel by Herman C. McNeile (Sapper)
1938/US
Paramount Pictures
First viewing

[box] Phyllis Clavering: And this was supposed to be our wedding day.

Capt. Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond: Oh, I’m sorry, darling, but if there’s a registery office still open…

Col. Neilson: And if there isn’t, you’ll probably break into one![/box]

Another wedding cancelled at the last minute

 

Clip – Credits

Mr. Wong, Detective
Directed by William Nigh
Written by Houston Branch based on a series by Hugh Wiley in Collier’s magazine
1938/USA
Monogram Pictures
First viewing

[box] [first lines] Anton Mohl, aka Baron Von Krantz: You’re going to get killed doing that, one of these days, Lescardi![/box]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47RZGiOnPrU

Clip – opening

 

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews

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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Posted in 1938

For the birds …

Posted on November 15, 2013 | 4 comments

The Rio Grande Valley is the place to be!  I hadn’t realized it would be quite so tropical.  It was a trip full of “firsts”.  My favorite was this little guy, which lays perfectly motionless on the ground during the day blending in with the leaf cover

Common Parauque

But the highlight for everyone there came when somebody spotted this seriously lost bird. Only the second recorded sighting in the United States.

Amazon Kingfisher

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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Posted in Movie Reviews

On Vacation

Posted on November 3, 2013 | 2 comments

I’m off to Lone Star territory to attend the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.  With luck, I will get a look at this guy –

Buff-Bellied Hummingbird

 

I’ll be back on November 15 to start my journey through 1938.

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Posted in Movie Reviews

Désiré (1937)

Posted on November 3, 2013 | 1 comment

Désiré
Directed by Sacha Guitry
Written by Sacha Guitry
1937/France
Cinéas
First viewing

 

[box] “The best way to turn a woman’s head is to tell her she has a beautiful profile” — Sacha Guitry[/box]

This French drawing-room farce did not make me laugh much.

Odette (Sacha Guitry’s then wife Jacqueline Delubac) is a former actress and the mistress of Felix, a French Minister.  The couple want to spend the summer at her home in Deauville but they are short one valet.  Désiré (Guitry) arrives at the last minute to save the day.  Odette hires him despite learning that he was fired for making advances to his former employer.  He fits in well with Madeleine, the lady’s maid (Arletty), and the cook. When the household arrives in Deauville, however, Odette and Désire are overheard to talk in their sleep … about each other.

This is witty I suppose but it did not tickle my funny bone.  There is a dinner scene poking fun at a hard-of-hearing woman that goes on way too long.  I like Arletty and she is fine here.

This concludes my viewing for 1937.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_YoPiJO0do

Credit sequence – no subtitles

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Posted in Movie Reviews

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

Posted on November 2, 2013 | 2 comments

Nosferatu the Vampyre (“Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht”)
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
1979/West Germany
Werner Herzog Filmproduktion/Gaumont/Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
First viewing
#668 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 7.5/10; I say 8/10

 

[box] Count Dracula: [Hearing howling] Listen… [More howling] Listen. The children of the night make their music.[/box]

Werner Herzog’s homage to Murnau is a visual feast.

Renfield sends Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) on a dangerous but potentially lucrative journey to Transylvania to try to sell a house to Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski).  Harker’s wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) has a bad feeling about the trip and urges him not to go. When Harker returns, he is gravely ill and demented.  Dracula arrives to occupy his new house and brings with him a ship full of rats and an epidemic of plague.  Doctor Van Helsing does not believe in the occult or vampires so it is up to Lucy to slay the fiend.

I love Werner Herzog’s sense of lighting and framing so from the opening, in which a shot of books, fruit, and kittens looked to me like an Old Master, I was hooked.  In addition, Klaus Kinski may make the very best Dracula ever.  He actually looked like a bat to me and was scary and pathetic at the same time.  I had not known that Bruno Ganz was in this film.  He is one of my very favorite actors and he is wonderful, as always, here, especially as he transitions from before his encounter with Dracula to after.  The score, done by frequent collaborators Florian Fricke and Popul Vuh, adds to the atmosphere.

That said, the story started losing me about the time Dracula arrived with those rats.  Oh, how I hate the creatures!  I don’t know how Isabelle Adjani could stand to walk through them.  But it wasn’t just the rats.  The film starts getting more and more surreal to the point where it lost some of its earlier appeal.  Nevertheless, I could have looked at the pictures for another hour.

BFI Trailer

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Movie Reviews

What Did the Lady Forget? (1937)

Posted on November 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

What Did the Lady Forget? (“Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka”)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu
Written by Yasujirô Ozu and Akira Fushimi
1937/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing

 

[box] Watching Fantasia (1940), I understood we could never win the war. “These people seem to like complications”, I thought to myself. — Yasujiro Ozu[/box]

This obscure comedy by master Yasurjiro Ozu had me chortling out loud.

Wealthy medical professor Dr. Komiya is henpecked at home.  His wife forces him out of the house to go golfing on the weekend and asks his niece to stay home to watch the place while she goes to the theater with her lady friends.  Both secretly rebel and end up meeting at a bar.  The thoroughly modern niece gets tipsy and takes her uncle to a geisha house.  She is raked over the coals when she comes home drunk and accompanied by one of the doctor’s students.  The doctor spends the night with the student (apparently golfing is an overnight trip) but his wife easily catches him in his lie.  All is straightened out in a very amusing way.

Very little happens in this film but all the incidents are fresh and funny and the resolution is simultaneously philosophical and amusing.  The characteristic Ozu style is fully in evidence.  Recommended.

Clip

 

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Posted in 1937, Movie Reviews