Monthly Archives: April 2014

Gaslight (1940)

Posted on April 7, 2014 | 2 comments

Gaslightgaslight poster
Directed by Thorold Dickinson
Written by A.R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland from the play by Patrick Hamilton
1940/UK
British National Films
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] Song at Cadbury Music Hall: It’s very aggravating when your love isn’t true…[/box]

I’m very glad I finally caught up with the original version of 1944’s Gaslight.  I loved it.

Paul Mallen (Anton Walbrook) and his wife Bella (Diana Wynyard) move into a long-disused mansion where a woman was brutally murdered 20 years before.  They also buy the empty house next door but Paul has refused all offers to lease it.  It soon becomes clear that the marriage is not a happy one.  Paul constantly berates his wife for forgetting things, losing things, and making things up and threatens her with commitment to an asylum.  He generally makes her life completely miserable.  In the meantime, retired detective Rough is sure he has seen Paul before as Harry Bauer. the chief suspect in the murder of his aunt for her rubies, which were never found.  He spends the rest of the story attempting to find evidence to support his suspicion before Bella slips into insanity for real. With Robert Newton as Bella’s cousin.

gaslight 1

I generally love Anton Walbrook and he is great here.  In stark contrast to the suave, oily Charles Boyer, he portrays Paul from the start as the dispenser of the most vile emotional and verbal abuse.  I rapidly grew to hate this man but could not deny his fascinating but demented charm.  This version is also blessedly free of the romantic sub-plot but compensates by having a delightful turn by the cagey old Rough as Bella’s guardian angel. Diana Wynyard is suitably fragile and Cathleen Cordell as the flirtatious parlor maid Nancy is quite effective.  The film is taut and suspenseful right through.  I wouldn’t want to have to choose between this one and the Bergman version.  Very highly recommended.

Clip

 

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Posted in 1940, Movie Reviews

The Great Dictator (1940)

Posted on April 6, 2014 | 3 comments

The Great Dictator
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Written by Charles Chaplin
USA/1940
Charles Chaplin Productions
Repeat viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus
#144 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Field Marshal Herring: We’ve just discovered the most wonderful, the most marvelous poisinous gas. It will kill everybody.[/box]

This has moments of absolute genius although I have mixed feelings about the concluding speech.

A poor Jewish barber (Charlie Chaplin) serves in the trenches of WWI and after numerous scrapes serendipitously manages to save the life of “Tomanian” pilot Schultz (Reginald Gardiner).  He suffers amnesia from their crash and spends many years in the hospital, oblivious to the changes taking place on the outside.  Dictator Adenoid Hynkle (also Chaplin) has taken over the country and is persecuting the Jews in the ghetto.

When Chaplin returns home he falls in love with plucky Hannah (Paulette Godard) and bravely fights storm troopers.  For a while, he manages to escape punishment due to a chance meeting with Schulz.  Meanwhile, Hynkle plots to invade Austerlitz with advisors Herring and Garbitsch (Henry Daniell) but first he must negotiate with Bacterian dictator Napoloni (Jack Oakie).  Finally, the barber and Schultz barely escape with their lives but are finally saved due to the uncanny resemblance between barber and dictator.

Chaplin may be at his most graceful in this movie and the scene captured in the clip below is a wonder of balletic mime.  In fact, all the mostly silent bits are comic gems.  Jack Oakie manages to steal all the scenes he is in.  That chin is a perfect stand-in for Mussolini’s! I don’t like Chaplin much when he starts preaching, which he will now do more and more throughout his later work.  it is impossible to disagree with the sermon here but the sanctimonious tone is kind of a turn-off to me.

The Great Dictator was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Oakie), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Score (Meredith Wilson).

Clip – Hynkle and Globe

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1940, Movie Reviews

His Girl Friday (1940)

Posted on April 5, 2014 | 7 comments

His Girl Friday
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Charles Lederer from the play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
1940/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#141 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Hildy Johnson: Walter, you’re wonderful, in a loathsome sort of way.[/box]

Love this one!  I only wish I could finally watch it restored and with subtitles to catch every delicious line.

Hard-charging newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) will stop at nothing to keep his star reporter and ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) from marrying insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).  He has an especially potent lure in the story of Earl Williams (John Qualen), a crazed killer who is about to be executed as the climax to the re-election campaigns of the city’s corrupt law-and-order ticket mayor and sheriff. With a host of outstanding character actors as the many other reporters, wise-guys, and patsies.

His Girl Friday unfortunately fell into the public domain and I have only ever seen it in the sub-par cheapo edition available from Netflix or on TV.  I am sure I have missed many zingers.  Even so, there are so many I did catch that this is a total delight. The leads were born to deliver this rapid-fire material.  Rosalind Russell was about the seventh actress offered the part but it is hard to imagine any one else in this role.

Trailer

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1940, Movie Reviews

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Posted on April 4, 2014 | 2 comments

Forbidden Planet
Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
Written by Cyril Hume based on a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler
1956/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#320 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDB users say 7.7/10; I say 8/10

[box] Dr. Edward Morbius: Guilty! Guilty! My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it![/box]

The granddaddy of big-budget sci-fi movies is still enjoyable after all these years.

Commander Adams (Leslie Nielson) and the crew of his spaceship are on a mission to the planet Altair to search for survivors of a scientific mission lost there 20 years before. As they approach, lone survivor Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) warns them off, assuring them everything is alright.  They ignore his advise and discover him living with nubile daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) and faithful robot Robby in a marvelous compound devoid of other life.

Morbius explains that the other members of his expedition were torn limb from limb by a mysterious force to which he and his daughter are immune.  He also shows the men a laboratory of vast sophistication in which he has discovered  the secrets of the Krell, highly evolved creatures who died out 20,000 years ago.  Before their extinction, the Krell were able to create matter with thought alone, an ability which Morbius has been able to engineer into Robby.

The Commander and Altaira fall in love but the evil secret of the Forbidden Planet threatens the lives of his crew and their future together.

The state-of-the-art special effects and art direction look a tad obvious and 50’s retro from this vantage point but they still impress by the sheer scope of their vision. The 50’s era sexual politics is too naive to be offensive and a scary monster and a unique Freudian premise do not disappoint.

Forbidden Planet was nominated for an Academy Award for its Special Effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEj8bZo9IGA

Trailer

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Posted on April 4, 2014 | 4 comments

The Grapes of Wrath 
Directed by John Ford
Written by Nunnally Johnson based on the novel by John Steinbeck
1940/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#145 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] [last lines] Ma Joad: Rich fellas come up an’ they die, an’ their kids ain’t no good an’ they die out. But we keep a’comin’. We’re the people that live. They can’t wipe us out; they can’t lick us. We’ll go on forever, Pa, ’cause we’re the people.[/box]

I always forget just how great this movie is.  It is a true masterpiece.

Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns home from the penitentiary only to find that his family has been evicted from the land they have sharecropped for years by the land company.  With ex-preacher Jim Casey (John Carridine), he tracks them down just as they are ready to set out to the promised land of California in search of work.  But the outsiders are not welcomed and the family threatens to break apart.  Meanwhile, Tom angered at the exploitation he sees and inspired by a sacrifice made by Casey, grows increasingly restless.  With Jane Darwell as Ma, Charley Grapewin as Grandpa. John Qualen as Muley, and Ward Bond as a kindly policeman.

 

The subject matter is so sad that I postponed viewing the film.  I shouldn’t have.  Within five minutes, I was overcome by the spare beauty of the images.  This represented some kind of peak in the distinguished careers of Ford and Fonda.  The acting, even that of Carradine who usually overdoes it, is absolutely convincing.

Jane Darwell won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in The Grapes of Wrath and John Ford was named the Best Director of the year.  The picture was also nominated by the Academy in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor (Fonda), Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing.

Trailer

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1940

Under Texas Skies (1940)

Posted on April 4, 2014 | 1 comment

Under Texas Skies
Directed by George Sherman
Written by Anthony Coldeway and Betty Burbridge based on characters created by William Colt McDonald
1940/USA
Republic Pictures
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Tagline: A RAIDER-BUSTIN’ Buckeroo in a ROARIN’ ROUND-UP OF BLAZIN’ Action![/box]

I have not been religious in watching all the “B” Westerns available to me but this one was highly rated (7.8/10 on IMDb) and I had the time so I gave it a try.  It was quite OK but nothing special.

The Civil War causes the government to pull troops out of the frontier, leaving the ranchers without protection. Sheriff Brooke is looking for men to take their place and varmint Tom Blackton manages to get himself and part of his gang deputized.  The other members of the gang proceed to terrorize the county.  When Tuscon Smith finds them out, Blackton frames him for the murder of the sheriff.  Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston) arrives in town and starts to hunt down his old friend Tuscon who has escaped from jail.  Soon enough, he discovers the true culprit and, with the aid of feckless Lullaby Jones and Tuscon, hunts him down.

This is sort of a prequel to the Three Musketeers series in that the boys are not yet a team at the start.  It also marked the return of Robert Livingston, who had been replaced by John Wayne for several films, as Stony.  The story has all the elements that would appeal to its target audience.  Unfortunately, this includes some fairly lame comic relief by Lullaby who continues to specialize in ventriloquism.

Although no attention is called to it, these guys appear to be time travelers.  In the last episode I watched they were driving pickup trucks.

 

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Posted in 1940, Movie Reviews

Waterloo Bridge (1940)

Posted on April 3, 2014 | 1 comment

Waterloo Bridge
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by S.N. Behrman, Hans Rameau, and George Froeschel from the play by Robert E. Sherwood
1940/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Warner Home Video DVD

 

[box] Myra Lester: I loved you, I’ve never loved anyone else. I never shall, that’s the truth Roy, I never shall.[/box]

I had been looking forward to seeing this one for years.  It did not live up to my perhaps inflated expectations from my experience of James Whale’s 1931 original but had considerable merits of its own, not the least was Vivien Leigh’s fine performance.

The story begins as Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor), now a high officer in the WWII British army, stands on Waterloo Bridge reminiscing over the lost love he met there during a bombing raid in World War I.  Segue to an extended flashback.  A group of girls flees to shelter in Waterloo Station.  One of them, Myra (Leigh), hangs behind when she drops a good luck charm from her purse.  Cronin escorts her to the shelter where he falls in love at first sight.  Myra is a dancer in the corps de ballet of a troupe under the strict tutelage of “Madame” (Maria Ouspenskaya).  She defies Madame’s ban on an outside romantic life to meet Roy for a night on the town before he leaves for the front.

He is unexpectedly given 48 hours leave and returns the next day to marry Myra.  He needs to get permission from his superiors before marrying and this delays them until so late in the afternoon that the priest refuses to marry them until the next morning.  Roy is abruptly sent to the front and they cannot complete the ceremony.  Myra is fired when she misses a performance to see him off at the station.

She rooms with another dancer who was also fired for standing up for her.  Neither girl can find work.  Just when it seems that Myra may be rescued by Roy’s mother, she reads his name among the dead in the newspaper and completely falls apart.  Both girls descend into prostitution to survive and the tragedy deepens.  Can Myra redeem herself when Roy returns?  With Lucile Watson as Roy’s mother and C. Aubrey Smith as his uncle.

The story is plagued by a few too many coincidences to move me the way it should.  No one could deny the beauty or superb acting by Leigh, however.  A character more different than Scarlett O’Hara’s would be difficult to imagine.  I think this movie is a pretty good example of the Code’s impact on Hollywood.  I would have loved to see Leigh in the original story where Myra has already been forced into prostitution when she meets a naive young soldier and longs to make a too-good-to-be-true romance work while never quite believing it will.

Waterloo Bridge was Oscar-nominated for its Black-and-White cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg) and Original Score (Herbert Stothart).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-ZU1QBkHY

Clip – “Auld Lang Syne”

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

Posted on April 3, 2014 | 2 comments

Stranger on the Third FloorStranger on the Third Floor Poster
Directed by Boris Ingster
Written by Frank Partos
1940/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video (free to Prime members)

 

The Stranger: I want a couple of hamburgers… and I’d like them raw.

This odd little “B” movie may have very well have been the very first film noir.  I found it interesting if not great.

Reporter Mike Ward scored a coup and earned a raise by being the eye-witness to a murder, or at least its aftermath.  He had seen Joe Briggs (Elisha Cook Jr.) in a heated argument with the victim and later saw him standing over the body.  He is elated because the extra money will allow him to marry sweetheart Jane.  But when Jane attends the trial at which Mike testifies she cannot believe that the young defendent could have committed the crime and he loudly protests his innocence.

Mike returns home to his bachelor quarters in a rooming house and is deeply troubled.  He sees a stranger (Peter Lorre) creeping through the house and chases him when he runs. He is then disturbed that he does not hear the usual snoring through the walls.  Mike sinks into a nightmare in which he sees himself framed for the murder of Albert Meng, his highly unpleasant, meddling next-door neighbor.  Naturally, this is just what happens.  Mike discovers Meng’s body with its throat slashed just as the other victim’s had been.  Mike is now convinced that both were murdered by the mysterious stranger.  His task is to convince the authorities.   Jane’s is to track down the stranger.

stranger on the third floor 1This has some really interesting “German Expressionist” chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles, particularly in the dream sequences.  Lorre’s performance is reminiscent of his work in M.  Although there is no first-person narration, there is a long (and faintly ridiculous) interior monologue.  It is easy to see why critics might have singled out this fairly obscure little picture as the first film noir. It certainly fits in with noir’s “B” roots.  Most of the acting, dialogue, and general histrionic flavor are strictly “B” stuff.  The movie is fun even if the plot makes little sense.

Ingster directed only 3 films but went on to some success as a film and TV producer. He hailed from Latvia and had worked with Sergei Eisenstein in Russia.  Lorre appeared in three of the films prominently mentioned as the “first” film noir: this one, M, and The Maltese Falcon.

I notice that the complete film is currently available on YouTube.

Clip

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Posted in 1940, Noir Month

The Great McGinty (1940)

Posted on April 2, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Great McGinty
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
1940/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] Skeeters: If it wasn’t for graft, you’d get a very low type of people in politics. Men without ambition. Jellyfish.

Catherine: Especially since you can’t rob the people anyway.

.Skeeters: Sure. How was that?

Catherine: What you rob, you spend, and what you spend goes back to the people. So, where’s the robbery? I read that in one of my father’s books.

Skeeters: That book should be in every home.[/box]

In his first effort as a writer-director, Preston Sturges shows all the elements of comedic brilliance that have endeared him to his fans to this day.

From exile in a banana republic, Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) tells the story of his rise from a bum to governor of a great state and subsequent fall due to “one crazy minute” of honesty.

Ward-heeler Skeeters (William Demerest) finds McGinty in a soup line and offers him $2 to vote for a mayoral candidate.  McGinty is so good at this kind of thing that he does it 37 times.  This brings him to the attention of the local Boss (Akim Tamiroff), who admires McGinty’s pugnacious spirit and makes him a collector for his protection racket.  He rapidly rises to alderman and proves good enough at dispensing graft that the Boss decides to make him the “reform” candidate for mayor.  Unfortunately for himself, the Boss thinks McGinty needs to marry to attract women voters and Dan’s adoring secretary (Muriel Angelus) is quickly chosen as the token bride.

But six months into the marriage, McGinty unexpectedly falls in love with his wife and her children and when he is elected governor, she inspires him to do “one crazy thing” against his better judgement.  With the Sturges stock company at their eccentric best.

What genius does it take to be able mix biting satire with some of the most over-the-top slapstick like Sturges can?  At his best, he has me grinning for minutes at a time when I am not laughing out loud.  This was a great start to a short but inspired directing career.

This has got it all.  It might just be Tamiroff’s best performance.  His many slug-fests with Donlevy are a highlight of the movie.  But the actors in the smallest parts, even those without dialogue, consistently make me smile.  It is a shame Angelus retired so early.  She is excellent here.

Sturges won the Academy Award for his Original Screenplay.

Clip – Tamiroff tries to get Donlevy to take the plunge

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Posted in 1940, Movie Reviews

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

Posted on April 2, 2014 | 3 comments

The Mark of Zorro
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Written by John Taintor Foote et al from a story by Johnston McCulley
1940/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Special Edition DVD

 

[box] Inez Quintero: Oh, Diego, when may we expect you and our dear little Lolita in Madrid?

Don Diego Vega: Not for some time I’m afraid. We’re going to follow the customs of California.

Inez Quintero: What do you mean?

Don Diego Vega: Well, we’re going to marry and raise fat children and watch our vineyards grow.[/box]

I thought this was everything a Zorro film should be.  It was a joy to see Basil Rathbone take up his sword again.

Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power)is known in old Madrid as the “California Cockerel”, a master at fencing, womanizing, and carousing.  He is abruptly called home by his father, the alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles (Montague Love).  When he arrives, he finds his kindly father has been deposed by the cruel and greedy Don Luis Quintero and power-behind-the-throne Capt. Esteban Pasquale (Rathbone), who have been abusing the peons with high taxes and brutal punishment for non-compliance.

Don Diego immediately determines to set things right.  His father is a strong believer in law and order, so Diego adopts the disguise of masked avenger Zorro.  His aim is to scare the cowardly Quintero to resigning and returning to Spain.  At the same time, in everyday life, he adopts the persona of an effeminate fop, much to the disgust of his father and former teacher Friar Felipe (Eugene Pallette).

Diego takes a two-pronged approach.  As Zorro, he becomes a Robin Hood, robbing the tax collections and returning them to the people and threatening to kill Quintero if he does not resign.  As the fop, he worms his way into the affections of Quintero’s wife Inez (Gale Sondergaard) promising to present her at court (and more) if she will return to Spain. Finally, Esteban comes up with the idea of marrying Diego and the Quintero’s daughter Lolita (the very young Linda Darnell) to forge an alliance between the government and the caballeros.  This Diego enthusiastically embraces as he has become enamored with the gorgeous Lolita in real life.

Naturally, Zorro must triumph.  Fortunately, this does not occur before a really splendid sword fight between Power and Rathbone.

I thought this was enormous fun.  My husband joined me half way through and loved it too. I had not known Power was so agile.  He does very well as a dancer and as a swordsman. Of course, it was hard to take my eyes off of Rathbone during the sword fight.

Alfred Newman was nominated for an Oscar for his rousing Original Score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoNvIavMsc4

Trailer (in color)

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Posted in 1940, Movie Reviews