Category Archives: 1939

Destry Rides Again (1939)

Posted on January 21, 2014 | 4 comments

Destry Rides Again
Directed by George Marshall
Written by Felix Jackson, Gertrude Purcell and Henry Myers
1939/USA
Universal Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#132 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] Frenchy: Get out before I kill you!

Tom Destry Jr.: You mean you haven’t been tryin’?[/box]

This much-lampooned take on the Western has more of a serious side than I remembered.

The Old West town of Bottleneck is run by political boss and card cheat Kent (Brian Donlevy) and his paramour, saloon singer Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich).  When the sherriff objects to Kent’s methods in acquiring an unwilling settler’s ranch, he promptly disappears and is replaced by town drunk Wash (Charles Winninger).  But Wash, who was formerly a deputy, takes the job seriously and calls on Tom Destry (James Stewart), the son of a famous sherriff, to help him out.  He is dismayed when Destry arrives in town without a gun and seems determined to restore law and order without using one.

But Destry, despite his folksy anecdotes, is no fool and no slouch with a pistol either.  His smartest move is eliciting the heart of gold concealed in Frenchy’s rough-and-ready exterior. But can Destry really defeat the ruthless Kent without a gun?  With Una Merkel as a righteous matron and Mischa Auer as her henpecked husband.

This film has a comic tone, including the famous cat fight between Dietrich and Merkel, and several musical numbers.  In fact, it’s hard for me to watch Dietrich in this without thinking of Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles.  All that I remembered was the lighter parts so I was surprised at how sad the finale was and how cavalierly the sadness was treated in the end.  Any way, it’s Stewart’s first Western and quite entertaining.

Trailer

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1939, Movie Reviews

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Posted on January 20, 2014 | 10 comments

Only Angels Have Wings
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Jules Furthman
1939/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#131 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Bonnie Lee: I’m hard to get, Geoff. All you have to do is ask me.[/box]

This is another 1939 example of the Hollywood studio system at its height.

Piano player Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) gets off the ship during a port call in a South American town.  There she becomes fascinated by the pilots who make dangerous mail runs over the Andes.  She rapidly falls for no-nonsense Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) who manages the fledging airline.  He has been wounded in love and now “wouldn’t ask any woman” for anything.  For her part, Bonnie has problems coping with Geoff’s ultra-dangerous test flights.

Into this mileu comes pilot Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) and his wife Judy (Rita Hayworth).  It turns out that Bat bailed out of a plane and left his co-pilot to die.  This co-pilot was the brother of Geoff’s loyal sidekick Kid (Thomas Mitchell) and the other pilots want nothing to do with Bat.  Judy is the woman who broke Geoff’s heart.  The rest of the story is taken up with some dynamite flying sequences, Bat’s attempted redemption, Kid’s problems, and the central love story.    With Sig Ruman as a bar owner and Noah Beery, Jr. as a doomed pilot.

I love this film though on this repeat viewing the plot seemed to be all over the place.  Not so the crackling dialogue by To Have and Have Not co-writer Furthman.  The cinematography is just luscious.

I never thought I would say this but I kept envisioning Clark Gable in the lead and how he would have been better suited to the role than Grant (whom I generally adore).  Thomas Mitchell is so outstanding in this movie it is difficult to believe that he didn’t win his Oscar for this part.  Richard Barthelmess gives an excellent understated performance as the disgraced pilot.

Only Angels Have Wings was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Black and White Cinematography and Best Special Effects.

Clip – Cary Grant and Jean Arthur at the piano

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1939, Movie Reviews

Tagged , ,

Midnight (1939)

Posted on January 20, 2014 | 3 comments

Midnight
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett based on a story by Edwin Justis Mayer and Franz Schulz
1939/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] Eve Peabody: Listen. Back in New York, whenever I managed to crash a party full of luscious big-hearted millionaires, there was always sure to be some snub-faced kid in the orchestra playing traps. And so at four in the morning, when the wise girls were skipping off to Connecticut to marry those millionaires, I’d be with him in some nightspot learning tricks on the kettledrum. And he always had a nose like yours.[/box]

A sterling cast and the Wilder-Brackett script makes this light-hearted romp a treat.

Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) arrives in Paris having lost her last sou in Monte Carlo. She bargains with taxi driver Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche) to take her around to look for jobs.  They quickly fall in love and Eve, who is scouting for a rich husband, flees.  She ends up crashing a society soiree posing as the “Baroness Czerny”.  She is spotted by Georges Flammarion (John Barrymore) whose wife Helene (Mary Astor) is having an affair with a young man. Flammarion pays Eve to lure the wealthy man away from Helene. The scheme is furthered during a weekend in the country.

In the meantime, Tibor has hired his cab driver cronies to scour Paris for Eve.  Just as Eve is about to be found out, Tibor shows up at the country house as the Baron Czerny and saves the day.  Or does he?   With Hedda Hopper as a society lady and Monte Wooley as a judge.

This may be Don Ameche’s best performance as a young man.  The witty dialogue suits him much better than his good guy roles in the Power-Faye films.  Everyone else is clicking on all cylinders – even poor John Barrymore who was actually on his last legs. According to the trivia, he was assisted by his wife and reading from cue cards by this time.  You wouldn’t have known.  The film makers also managed to expertly disguise Astor’s pregnancy.

According to IMDb, Leisen’s constant requests for re-writes on this picture sparked Wilder to campaign to direct his own scripts in self-defense.

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

Clip – at the hat shop – Colbert and Astor

 

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Posted in 1939, Movie Reviews

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Gone with the Wind (1939)

Posted on January 9, 2014 | 7 comments

Gone with the Wind
Directed by Victor Fleming
Written by Sidney Howard from the novel by Margaret Mitchell
1939/USA
Selznick International Pictures in association with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#133 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Scarlett: I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.[/box]

The best films are timeless – like this romantic melodrama about various sorts of unrequited love.  I can’t think of a thing that could be changed without hurting the movie. Perfect cast, perfect production, perfect music, etc., etc.   Amazing that all this came out of such a fraught production history and so much micro-management.

Gone with the Wind won an unprecedented eight Academy Awards:  Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel), Best Screenplay, Best Color Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Film Editing. William Cameron Menzies won an Honorary Oscar for “outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood”  and R.D. Musgrave won a Technical Achievement Award for “pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment.” The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Olivia de Havilland), Best Sound Recording, Best Special Effects, and Best Original Score.

Clip – Scarlett makes her way through the wounded after the Battle of Atlanta

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1939

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

Posted on January 7, 2014 | 5 comments

The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by Sonya Levien and Bruno Frank from the novel by Victor Hugo
1939/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] Quasimodo, the bell-ringer: [to one of the stone gargoyles] Why was I not made of stone – like thee?[/box]

Despite its many excellences, I find this film such a downer that it is hard for me to watch.

In 15th Century France, Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) is a hideously deformed bell-ringer at Notre Dame cathedral, who has also been deafened by the sound of the bells. Quasimodo was rescued as a baby by the evil Inquisitor Frollo (Cedric Hardwicke).  Frollo becomes madly infatuated by Gypsy dancer Esmeralda (Maureen O’Hara) and believes she has bewitched him.

Esmeralda is quite a beauty, but a saintly one,  and similarly attracts poet Gringore (Edmond O’Brien).  She herself is in love with dashing Phoebus but marries Gringore to save him from hanging.  Quasimodo also is enchanted with Esmeralda and tries unsuccessfully to carry her off.  The next day, while he is being cruelly punished for doing so she offers him a glass of water. He is now devoted to her beyond all measure and comes to the rescue after she is found guilty in a trial for witchcraft and murder.

This should be seen for Charles Laughton’s performance alone.  I find him most effective in the earlier scenes in which he does not speak.  The other performances and the production are of a very high standard.  Maureen O’Hara was probably never more radiantly beautiful than she was here, in her debut.  I have a hard time with cruelty in movies though and this story is jam-packed with it.  I probably will not re-visit this film.

I have not seen the Disney cartoon but have always wondered how the story could possibly have been made suitable for children.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was nominated for Academy Awards for its Sound Recording and Original Score.  How Laughton missed being nominated is beyond me.

Clip – Quasimodo rescues Esmerelda

 

5 Comments

Posted in 1939, Movie Reviews

Bachelor Mother (1939)

Posted on January 7, 2014 | 2 comments

Bachelor Mother
Directed by Garson Kanin
Written by Norman Krasna and Felix Jackson
1939/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Warner Archives DVD

 

[box] David Merlin: Of course he talks! Why, he can recite the first line of Gunga Din![/box]

Despite its preposterous plot, this is an enjoyable romantic comedy helped along by the charm of its two leads.

Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) is about to be laid off from her holiday job as a department store clerk.  As she returns to the store from her lunch break, she sees an old lady abandon a baby on the steps of a foundling home.  Concerned, she picks up the child and takes it inside. The staff refuse to believe it is not her own baby.  They find out where she works and visit David Merlin (David Niven), the son of the owner (Charles Coburn). They convince Merlin to give Polly a permanent job and return the baby to her later that day.

Polly, who has a date to compete in a jitterbug contest, decides to dump the baby at David’s house.  After David catches up with her and makes clear that she will be fired unless she takes the baby, Polly relents.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happens next.

This is quite OK.  The writers manage to get in quite a few double entendres and things move right along.  I could watch Ginger Rogers in just about anything.

Bachelor Mother was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Story.

Trailer

 

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Posted in 1939, Movie Reviews

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Posted on January 6, 2014 | 2 comments

The Roaring Twenties
Directed by Raul Walsh
Written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macauley, and Richard Rossen from an original story by Mark Hellinger
1939/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box]Panama Smith: This is Eddie Bartlett.

Cop: Well, how’re you hooked up with him?

Panama Smith: I could never figure it out.

Cop: What was his business?

Panama Smith: He used to be a big shot.

[/box]

This is a first-class gangster film with dynamic performances by two great stars.

The movie tells the story of the “rise” of Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) from a doughboy in World War I to a powerful bootlegger and his “fall” due to his love of the wrong woman. Eddie is a likeable sort of every man all along the road. His path crosses early on with ruthless fellow bootlegger (George Halley) and good-guy lawyer Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn). He falls hard for singer Jean (Priscilla Lane).  Saloonkeeper Panama carries a torch for Eddie but is unable to win him or make him see that he and Jean are from different worlds.

 

Any movie with Cagney and Bogart is guaranteed to be entertaining and this one does not disappoint.  Director Raul Walsh gives it a special class with taut action scenes, an iconic death on church steps, and some beautiful camera work. Cinematographer Ernest Haller provided the deep shadows that make the black and white shine.  Recommended.

Trailer – note reference to “today’s headlines” … and Priscilla Lane! – worst costume since poor Anne Dvorak’s in G Men

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Posted in 1939, Movie Reviews

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Posted on January 6, 2014 | 11 comments

The Wizard of Oz
Directed by Victor Fleming
Written by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf based on the book by L. Frank Baum
1939/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Warner DVD
#202 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Wizard of Oz: A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.[/box]

Not only should one see this movie before one dies, but preferably before the age of 10. This is more than a movie to me, it is part of my life.  Watching it yesterday brought back all the times I had seen it before – from my childhood on our black and white TV, to re-releases in the theater, to so many times on video and DVD.

As I sat watching it again, I began marvelling at how anything could be so perfect.  What happy accidents had to occur to bring these particular creative artists and craftspeople together on the same project to achieve this result.  Wonderful.

The only bone I have ever had to pick with this film has to do with the quote above.  It always seemed to me that it should be other way around – that a heart is judged by how much it loves. But maybe that depends on who is doing the judging?

The Wizard of Oz won Academy Awards for Best Original Song (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) and Best Original Score (Herbert Stothart). It was also nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Color Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Special Effects. Judy Garland won the Juvenile Award for 1939 for her “outstanding performance as a screen juvenile”.

Trailer

 

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1939

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Posted on January 4, 2014 | 3 comments

 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Sidney Buchman from a story by Lewis R. Foster
1939/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#129 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] President of Senate: Will the Senator yield?

Jefferson Smith: No, sir, I’m afraid not, no sir. I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember, and I was practically never heard of again. No sir. And we might as well all get together on this yielding business right off the bat, now.[/box]

This just might be Frank Capra’s best film unless it’s that other one with Jimmy Stewart.

Without too much thought, the Governor (Guy Kibbee) appoints Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) to fill a vacant Senate seat, figuring that the popular Boy Ranger leader will be clueless about politics.  Smith is inspired to be working with Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), who was a close friend of Smith’s crusading newspaper editor father.  He little dreams that Paine is in the pocket of political boss Jim Taylor.

When Mr. Smith gets to Washington, Paine puts him under the tutelage of staffer Clarrisa Saunders (Jean Arthur) and instructs her to keep him out of politics.  Arthur and her buddy newspaper man Diz Moore (Thomas Mitchell) think Smith is a hoot.  But Smith is an enthusiastic idealist and starts drafting a bill to fund a National Boys Camp.  When it turns out the camp would be built at the site of a dam Taylor and Rains are trying to quietly sneak through in a Deficiency Bill, Taylor decides Smith must be destroyed. Saunders helps Smith with his desperate attempt to defend himself.

 

I couldn’t help thinking how little things change as I watched this movie.  At the time of its release, many saw the film as an attack on the Senate and the Press and thus as anti-democratic.  But these naysayers were soon proved wrong when the film became the most popular movie in France just before the Occupation for showing how the democratic system as a whole works to protect liberty.

Capra managed to gather some of the most talented character actors in Hollywood for this picture.  I had actually forgotten how very fine Claude Rains is in this.  He is a bit over the top at the end but before that is admirably subtle and convincing.  It goes without saying that James Stewart is superb in a role that suited him to a tee.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington won an Academy Award for its original story.  It was nominated for 11 additional Oscars:  Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor (Stewart); Best Supporting Actor (Rains); Best Supporting Actor (Carey); Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Art Direction; Best Sound Recording; Best Film Editing; Best Score (Dmitri Tiomkin).

Clip – “I guess this is just a lost cause, Mr. Paine.”

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1939

Stagecoach (1939)

Posted on January 3, 2014 | 6 comments

Stagecoach
Directed by John Ford
Written by Dudley Nichols from a story by Ernest Haycox
1938/USA
Walter Wanger Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#130 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Buck: If there’s anything I don’t like, it’s driving a stagecoach through Apache country.[/box]

John Ford finds a canvas wide enough to contain his vision.

A motley group of passengers board a stagecoach on a dangerous journey through Apache country.  Town drunk/medical man Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell) and painted lady Dallas (Claire Trevor) are being driven out of town.  Much to Doc’s delight, a little whiskey drummer (Donald Meek) is along for the ride.  The passengers are rounded out with a sick lady on the way to join her soldier husband and her last-minute protector shady gambler Hatfield (John Carridine).  As the coach is departing town a whingeing blowhard banker hops a ride.  In the drivers seat is Buck (Andy Devine), with sheriff Curley riding shotgun (George Bancroft).  The party is completed when the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), who has escaped from jail, is forced to hitch a ride and apprehended by the sheriff.

The story follows the group dynamics as they move from a bickering set of individuals to a mostly cohesive unit battling challenges from child-birth, to love, to Apaches on the warpath.

It is hard to imagine a time when John Wayne wasn’t a movie star but such was the case here.  He didn’t even get top billing.  That distinction went to Claire Trevor, who previously had been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Dead End.  And, really, this is an ensemble piece.  Wayne does make his entrance in grand style, though!

For me, John Ford is the star of this movie.  The use of composition and vistas is stunning.  Ford would never look back.

Thomas Mitchell won a Best Support Actor Oscar for his work in this film.  (He couldn’t have been hurt by his great performances in Gone with the Wind and Only Angels Have Wings either.)  The film also won an Academy Award for its Scoring.  Stagecoach was also nominated by the Academy in the following categories:  Best Picture; Best Director; Best Cinematography (B&W); Best Art Direction; and Best Film Editing.

Theatrical Trailer

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1939