Little Women Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Written by Andrew Stolt, Sarah Y. Mason, and Victor Heerman from the novel by Louisa May Alcott 1949/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Jo March: [repeated several times] Christopher Columbus![/box]
The beloved classic gets the MGM Technicolor treatment. It’s a little too glossy for my taste but has its moments.
Probably all my readers know the story of the four sisters, each with different personality, who grow into young womanhood during the Civil War while their father is away with the Army. There is prim, practical Meg (Janet Leigh); boisterous would-be novelist Jo (June Allison); shy, frail Beth (Margaret O’Brien) and vain, selfish Amy (Elizabeth Taylor). They all benefit from the down-to-earth moral guidance of their mother, who they call Marmee (Mary Astor). The girls befriend the lonely, rich boy next door Laurie (Peter Lawford) and his tutor John Brooke. They contend with their crotchety Aunt March (Lucille Watson) and Laurie’s grandfather Mr. Lawrence (C. Aubrey Smith).
I like this movie but prefer the 1933 and 1996 versions. This one seems disjointed somehow and the March family is far too well off. Jo is the main protagonist in all the versions and June Alysson is adequate, if no Katharine Hepburn. My favorite performance is that of Elizabeth Taylor as Amy. She is so amusingly conceited and ignorant! Margaret O’Brien certainly knew how to pull on the old heartstrings didn’t she?
Little Women won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color. It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color.
Mighty Joe Young Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack Written by Ruth Rose from an original story by Merian C. Cooper 1949/USA Argosy Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Crawford: [amidst animal growls] It can’t be; we’re a hundred miles from that country – but it is, I swear it is! Ali, get me my gun – *big* gun![/box]
Sometimes it is good just to sit there like a little kid and marvel at some awesome special effects. This is a particularly good movie to do that with.
Little Jill Young lives on a farm in Africa with her widowed father and needs a friend. So she buys a baby gorilla from some natives who are passing by. She names her friend Joe. Father disapproves but of course the beast stays on.
Segue to perhaps 10 years later and we meet flamboyant nightclub owner and publicity hound Max O’Hara (Robert Armstrong). He decides that the best thing for his club will be to hire rodeo champion Gregg (Ben Johnson) to come with him to Africa and lasso some wild animals. There they run into Joe who is now a giant of perhaps the size of King Kong (though his relative size seems to vary throughout the film). They antagonize poor Joe and all hell breaks loose. Fortunately Jill (Terry Moore) shows up. She is the only one Joe will listen to and manages to calm him down again.
Max sweet talks the lonely orphan into bringing Joe with her to the bright lights of Hollywood. Joe’s act is a smash hit but he is miserable after hours in his cage and this makes Jill miserable too. Then Max tries out a new act in which his patrons throw things at the ape for a prize and Joe absolutely freaks out. He is caged again but escapes and most satisfactorily takes his revenge on the crowd and the premises.
The mean police want to shoot Joe as a dangerous animal. But Max and Gregg have a scheme to get him out of the country first. It doesn’t quite work out the way they planned. The day is saved when Joe is put to work rescuing children from a burning orphanage. With Frank McHugh as Max’s manager.
Well this was more fun than a barrel of monkeys! I love Robert Armstrong’s almost campy performances as this type in the Kong films and here. Joe is given so much personality that you have to love and root for him. The now blind Schoedsack did a splendid job of keeping things moving along at a breakneck speed.
For me the highlight was the commentary featuring the reminiscences of Terry Moore and stop-animation genius Ray Harryhausen with interjections by an animation enthusiast. The commentary made the special effects even more awe-inspiring if possible. Just think that each frame was individually shot, requiring subtle changes to a mind-boggling amount of moving parts! Check out the fire scene below for a fabulous example. If you like this kind of thing at all, I would say it’s a must-see.
Mighty Joe Young won the Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Directed by John Ford Written by Frank S. Nugent and Laurence Stallings from a story by James Warner Bellah 1949/USA Argosy Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Captain Nathan Brittles: Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness.[/box]
This lacks the gravitas of the previous entry in Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy – Fort Apache – but it is very appealing, looks splendid, and contains one of John Wayne’s better performances.
Wayne plays Capt. Nathan Brittles, a forty-year man who is about to retire. He clearly has mixed feelings about leaving his beloved cavalry. His right-hand man Sgt. Quincannon (Victor McLaglen), a hard-drinking blustery Irishman, is also due to retire a couple of weeks after him. Wayne is a crusty mentor to two young men who are coming up in the ranks, Lt. Flint Cohill (John Agar) and Second Lt. Ross Pennell (Harry Carey, Jr.). These are vying for the affections of spunky Olivia Dandridge (Joanne Dru), niece of the fort commandant, Major Allshard (George O’Brien).
The victory of the Sioux at Little Big Horn has inspired the local Indians to band together to drive the white man out of their hunting grounds once and for all. The major is anxious to get his wife (Mildred Natwick) and niece out of harm’s way and orders Brittles to take them along by wagon. Brittles protests but obeys. The presence of the women slows down the company and it proves impossible for Brittles to take them to the stage they are to catch.
By the time he gets back to the fort, Brittles has only a few hours remaining of his military career. After a touching send off, he uses the time he has to try to defuse the crisis with the Indians. With Ben Johnson as a fount of wisdom on Indian ways.
I had seen this before but remembered nothing about it. Truth to tell, the plot is subsidiary. Much time is devoted to the love triangle and to Victor McLaglen’s drunken antics, which are only too familiar from his playing the same character is just about every Ford film.
And yet there are many tender moments to savor. The 42-year-old Wayne was outstandingly convincing playing a 60-year-old and his farewell scene is something to treasure. Lots of the dialogue is sharp as well and the cinematography is breathtaking. This is the film that contains the beautiful shots of the troops riding through a thunder storm. Recommended.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color (Winton C. Hoch).
Le silence de la mer
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from a story by Vercors
1949/France
Melville Productions
First viewing/Hulu Plus
[box] It is beautiful for a soldier to disobey orders which are criminal – Anatole France (from a clipping left for the officer)[/box]
After seeing many gorgeous stills from this film, I was convinced I would love it. The visuals delivered but, unfortunately, I found the story pretty tedious.
The story takes place during the German Occupation. An old man and his niece are ordered to share their house with a German Officer. They decide to treat the man as if he were not there. They neither speak to him nor respond in any way. The officer happens to be a sensitive would-be composer and a Francophile. He joins the two each night and tells them about his dream for a truly free France that will be restored to its former greatness when Germany wins the war.
Then one day the officer must travel to Paris. He is excited about the possiblity of sharing his ideas with his friends. He comes back completely disillusioned and soon volunteers to go to the front lines. With Howard Vernon, Nicole Stephane, and Jean-Marie Robaine.
The film was based on a novel that was clandestinely released in 1942 and which became the Bible of the French Resistance. Melville did not have the author’s permission to film and finally agreed that he would burn the negatives if the author was unhappy with the film. The author was satisfied so I guess we can assume that the film is faithful to the book.
The visuals are amazing – all the more so since this was made with almost no budget. The music track cost more to make than the entire film. Otherwise, the film is almost entirely one long monologue by the officer accompanied by occasional narration from the old man. Time passed really slowly for me. Melville would do much better later.
The Third Man Directed by Carol Reed Written by Graham Greene from a story by Greene 1949/UK Carol Reed’s Production/London Film Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#230 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Calloway: [to Holly Martins] You were born to be murdered.[/box]
It’s films like this that inspired my love for classic movies, I have seen it so many times that I can hardly write about it. It retains its ability to excite and surprise from one viewing to the next, perhaps better than any other movie.
Pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in occupied Vienna broke and in happy expectation of a reunion with his old friend Harry Lime who has offered him a job. He calls on Harry only to discover that his friend was run over by a car and killed. The funeral is to take place that very day.
Holly arrives in time for the burial at the cemetery. There he meets Maj. Calloway (Trevor Howard) for the first time. He also glimpses three of Harry’s European friends and the beautiful Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli). Calloway offers Holly a ride into town. Calloway, a British investigator, had been on Harry’s trail for quite some time. He claims that Harry was one of the corrupt capital’s worst racketeers, his most notorious crime being robbery of penicillin from military hospitals and selling it back in a worthless, diluted form. He tells Holly to go back home immediately and even offers him space on a military plane.
Holly, who distrusts policemen, thinks Calloway must be wrong about Harry. He sets out to prove it when he fortuitously stumbles into a lecturing gig. Holly’s meetings with the porter in Harry’s building and Harry’s colleagues begin to make him to suspect that the death was a murder. His growing infatuation with the heart-broken Anna leads him to be drawn further and further into the case.
Holly is in way over his head. The closer he comes to the truth the greater is his danger. Eventually, he is wanted for the murder of the hotel porter. Anna, a Czech carrying forged identity documents provided by Harry, retains her loyalty to her dead lover despite the increasing possibility that she will be turned over to the Russian military for repatriation to her home country. Holly must wrestle with his own loyalties before the story is over. With Orson Welles.
It is impossible to say anything new about this film. To me it is perfect in every way from the breathtaking chiaroscuro lighting to the oddly fitting zither score.
The Blu-Ray DVD I rented came with an audio commentary by the Reed’s assistant, a continuity girl, and a Welles scholar. I loved the war stories from the shooting. Cotten was none too happy to be playing the part of a laughable American bumbler. This view was shared by David O. Selznik, who cut 8 minutes out of the film and added an opening narration by Cotten for the American release. I think both men missed the point of Greene’s screenplay. In the end, Holly Martins is the one character of conscience and with a true morality. There are also many stories about Welles. who was not about to set foot in any sewer. See The Third Man before you die. Preferably more than once.
Robert Krasker won an Academy Award for his awesome cinematography. The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Director and Best Film Editing.
Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx made their final film appearance as a team in Love Happy.  The film debut of the comic duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was in My Friend Irma.  The pair would go on to make a total of  sixteen feature films together for Paramount until they broke up in 1956.  After a ten-year absence from the screen, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were reunited for their tenth and final film together in MGM’s The Barkleys of Broadway. Wile E. Coyote, the Roadrunner and Mr. Magoo made their cartoon debuts.
Ingrid Bergman became pregnant by her lover – Italian Neo-Realist film-maker Roberto Rossellini.  Both were married to others at the time. The child was delivered out-of-wedlock in February of 1950, three months before their marriage in May.   She was denounced by US Senators, religious leaders, and citizens’ groups.  Eventually, the couple had three children together (Renato or “Robin”, and twin daughters Isabella and Isotta).  Bergman was not vindicated until making a comeback in Anastasia, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar.
Judy Garland, suffering from serious personal and health issues (suicide attempts, a nervous breakdown, and heavy doses of prescription drugs) and failing to report to the set and often late, was suspended from the title role (of sharpshooter Annie Oakley) during the making of the MGM musical Annie Get Your Gun.  She was replaced by Betty Hutton.
Aside from the anxieties supplied by the Red Scare and Cold War, Americans enjoyed a relatively uneventful year. In a horrible portent of things to come, Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, killed 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America’s first single-episode mass murderer.
RCA perfected a system for broadcasting color television and the first Polaroid camera was sold.  Guard of Honor by James Gould  Cozzens won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.  Virgil Thomson’s score for Louisiana Story won the Music prize and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman won for Drama.  Frankie Laine had 14 weeks of back-to-back number one hits on the Billboard charts with “That Lucky Old Sun” and “Mule Train”.
The Allies continued the Berlin Airlift to deliver food and supplies to West Berlin to overcome a blockade initiated by the Soviet Union in 1948 so that West Germany could not communicate with its capital.   By May 12, 1949 the Soviet Union ended the blockade because it was clearly not successful in halting the Allies unification efforts in West Germany.  The Allies continued the airlift until September 30th, 1949 in order to stock up on supplies in West Berlin.
Communist leader Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China on October 1st, 1949 after the Nationalist leader Chang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan. The nationalists and communists had been in an on and off civil war for control of the country since the late 1920s.   Britain recognized the independence of the Republic of Ireland.
I have previously reviewed the following 1949 movies on this site:  ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and .  The list of films I will select from can be found here and here.
If you are ever looking for gorgeous scenery, I can certainly recommend the Spanish mountains in springtime. I came away with 634 photos to download. Here are a couple.
I’m off to Spain for almost three weeks of birdwatching. So excited! We will start off at Doñana National Park where I am hoping to see hordes of these guys.
I’ll return home on May 10 and will get going on 1949 soon afterwards. See you at the movies!
I have now seen 63 films that were released in 1948. The complete list is here. A few shorts, documentaries, and other movies were reviewed here. The total also includes a few I’ve seen before that were not easily available this time around. This was a great year for movies. I cut it a bit short so that I can start fresh on 1949 when I return from vacation.
I usually make my list from films I have rated 10/10 or 9/10 on IMDb. This time there are too many 9/10 movies to include all of them in the top 10. Also rans were: Rope; Raw Deal; Red River; Force of Evil; It Happened in Europe; Pitfall; and He Walked by Night.
These basically could have been placed in any order, though Treasure of the Sierra Madre would always come out as my favorite of the year.
The Pirate Directed by Vicente Minnelli Written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from a play by S.N. Behrman 1948/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Manuela: Someday Macoco is going to swoop down upon me like a chicken hawk and carry me away.[/box]
Minnelli’s 1948 musical with wife Judy Garland was a notorious flop. There were reasons for this but there are also real pleasures to be found here.
Manuela (Garland) is a sheltered lass living in a quiet village. Her aunt (Gladys Cooper) has arranged her marriage to the much-older town mayor (Walter Slezak) but Manuela dreams of being swept of her feet by the notorious pirate “Black Mack” Macoco. She talks her aunt into letting her go on one last trip to a nearby port city. There she spots actor Serafin (Gene Kelly). Initially she mistakes him for Macoco. When she finds out his true identity, she wants nothing to do with him. She sneaks into see his show anyway and he takes advantage of the opportunity to hypnotize her into revealing her true feelings. They are for Macoco, not him. In a trance, Manuela breaks into song to the wild applause of the audience Now Serafin needs her as the headliner for his show.
Serafin follows Manuela back to her village. He pretends to be Macoco and threatens to burn down the place unless Manuela is given to him unmarried. Her fiance objects but it turns out Serafin is possession of a secret that allows him to carry on the charade. For the time being … With George Zucco as the viceroy.
The characters of Kelly and Garland are comically overacting for most of the film. This was not what 1948 audiences wanted to see no matter how clever some of the dialogue might be. The film also bogs down in places and the Cole Porter tunes, with one exception, are not his catchiest. The movie is worth seeing, however, just for the number in which Gene Kelly dances with the Nicholas Brothers to “Be a Clown” and the song’s reprise with Garland.
The DVD includes an interesting commentary by a film historian outlining the film’s troubled and protracted production history. Garland was about ready to implode at this time. Honestly, none of it shows up on the screen.
Lennie Hayton was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.
Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NVTFnmav4s
Clip – “Be a Clown” – Cole Porter was sure a good sport when Freed ripped this off for “Make ‘Em Laugh’ in Singin’ in the Rain
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
Photographs and videos found in this blog, unless indicated, are not owned by me and are here only for the purpose of education and discussion. Media found here are not intended for any commercial purpose. Copyright infringement is not intended.
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