Daily Archives: June 17, 2014

Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

Posted on June 17, 2014 | 1 comment

Sun Valley Serenade
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Written by Art Arthur, Robert Harari, Robert Ellis, and Helen Logan
1941/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/YouTube

[box] I want to do with skates what Fred Astaire is doing with dancing. — Sonja Henie[/box]

The story line of this one drove me crazy but I’d still have to recommend it if it were only for the ” Chattanooga Choo Choo”  sequence.

Phil Corey (Glenn Miller) and his band are broke and out of work.  They pick up a gig at Sun Valley when famous singer Vivian Dawn (Lynn Bari) argues with her regular orchestra.  Vivian and Phil’s pianist Ted (John Payne) quickly fall in love and he asks her to marry him.

In the meantime press agent ‘Nifty’ Allen (Milton Berle) has arranged for Ted to adopt a refugee as a publicity stunt.  Everyone is expecting a child but imagine their surprise when grown Norwegian refugee Karen Benson (Sonja Henie) turns up at the airport.  Karen immediately starts a campaign to marry Ted.  She will not take no for an answer.  She shows up uninvited to Sun Valley and then proceeds to lie and scheme non-stop until she gets her way.  With the 18-year-old Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers appearing in the “Chatanooga Choo Choo” number.

I think Sonie Henie is meant to be cuter than newborn kittens in this but I felt like slapping her throughout.  The entire plot just rubbed me the wrong way.  I hate it when stalker behavior is rewarded.  I must admit that Henie’s actual skating scenes, while not too impressive by today’s standards, are OK.  The finale of her skating on “black ice” looks really beautiful with her reflection.  (She was actually skating on a shallow layer of liquid black dye, which couldn’t have been easy.)

But the reason to see this is as one of only two film outings by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Along with “Choo Choo” they play “Take the A Train”  and “In the Mood” and are simply fab. The lesser-known musical numbers are good as well.

Harry Warren and Max Gordon were nominated for an Academy Award for their song “Chattanooga Choo Choo”.  Sun Valley Serenade was also nominated for Best Black-and-White cinematography and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Clip – “Chattanooga Choo Choo”

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Posted in 1941

They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

Posted on June 17, 2014 | 3 comments

They Died with Their Boots On
Directed by Raul Walsh
Written by Wally Kline and Aeneas MacKenzie
1941/USA
Warner Bros
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box]George Armstrong Custer: You may be right about money, Sharp; quite right. But there’s one thing to be said for glory.

Ned Sharp: Yeah? What’s that?

George Armstrong Custer: You can take glory with you when it’s your time to go.[/box]

 Errol Flynn makes a convincing and heroic George Armstrong Custer, Australian accent and all.

This is a liberally fictionalized account of the life of Custer (Flynn) starting with his West Point Days and ending with his death at the famous Battle of the Little Big Horn (“Custer’s Last Stand”).  Custer begins his military career as the flamboyant black sheep of West Point, a star with a saber but a dud at academics and constantly being disciplined for something or other.  On the day he is being graduated early to go off to fight in the Civil War he meets Libby (Olivia de Havilland).  It is reciprocal love at first sight.

Combat does not change Custer’s insubordination in the slightest.  Fortunately, as someone remarks, soldiers who refuse to obey orders wind up either sacked or with a medal and Custer is the kind that earns medals.  He becomes a hero during the Battle of Bull Run.   Custer begins drinking heavily out of boredom after the war and Libby gets him an appointment to the Seventh Cavalry in Lincoln Nebraska.

There he meets his old rival from West Point Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy). who has followed the money as a civilian and now corrupts the soldiers of the regiment with a saloon and sells rifles to the Indians.  Custer kicks Sharp out and rebuilds his regiment. They fight the warring Sioux nation down until Chief Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) promises peace on Custer’s promise that the Sioux will be allowed perpetual governance of their sacred land in the Black Hills.  A peace treaty is signed but Sharp, now backed by evil railroad interests and a government commissioner, conspires to lure white settlers to the area by false claims of a gold discovery.  Custer goes to Washington to try to convince the authorities of the error of their ways but eventually must return to the regiment to face their common fate.  With Gene Lockhart as Libby’s father, Hattie McDaniel as her Mammy, Charlie Grapewin as a comic sidekick, and Sydney Greenstreet as General Winfield Scott.

They Died with Their Boots On clocks in at two hours and twenty minutes but goes by quickly due to liberal amounts of humor in the first half and plenty of action in the second. Flynn is just right as the vainglorious, cocky, but brave Custer.  The relationship with de Havilland is tender and mature.  The supporting cast is superb as I have come to expect from Warner’s.

This was the eight and final pairing of Flynn and de Havilland.  The farewell was the last scene they filmed together.

Clip – Farewell scene

 

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Posted in 1941, Movie Reviews

Underground (1941)

Posted on June 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

Underground
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Edwin Justus Mayer, Oliver H. P. Garrett and Charles Grayson
1941/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Roan Group DVD

[box] Kurt Franken: I’m not going to let you go on working with those traitors.

Sylvia Helmuth: Take me back and I’ll do anything you want me to do.[/box]

I enjoyed this Hollywood propaganda exposée of Nazism.

By day Kurt Franken (Jeffrey Lynn) is an official in the Nazi Government, by night he is the voice of Illegal Radio urging the German people to resistance.  One day, his soldier brother Eric (Phillip Dorr) comes home from the war missing an arm.  Eric is a stalwart party member.  He is also looking for a girlfriend.  He spot’s Sylvia’s address in Kurt’s wallet and begins a dogged pursuit of her.  Sylvia is also a secret member of the resistance.  She is eventually arrested for receiving radio equipment and Eric tries to prove her innocence. When he finds out she is guilty, he has some hard decisions to make.

This is fairly exciting and not too preachy.  It is the most graphic Hollywood condemnation of Nazi brutality I have run across yet.  Of course it is nothing compared to the real thing.

For an article about real-life German resistance to the Nazis go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widerstand

To see the trailer on TCM go here: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/140815/Underground-Original-Trailer-.html

 

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Posted in 1941, Movie Reviews