Alice Adams (1935)

Posted on May 22, 2013 | 4 comments

Alice AdamsAlice Adams Poster
Directed by George Stevens
1935/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing

 

Virgil Adams: Why, you think you’re going to be pushed right spang up against a wall – you can’t see any way out, or any hope at all – then something you never counted on turns up – and you kind of squeeze out of it, and keep on going.

This romantic drama made me get pretty darn misty.  Katharine Hepburn plays Alice Adams, daughter of a working class family, who hides her origins under a facade of “quality” and a nervous laugh.  Her mother (Ann Shoemaker) is constantly after her father (Fred Stone) for “not making something of himself” and calling him a failure for not giving his children what they deserve.  She eventually nags him so much that he quits his job and unwisely opens a glue factory to exploit a formula he developed while working for his employer.

We see Alice suffer the youthful humiliations of being roundly snubbed at a society party, where she appears in a two-year-old dress and wearing hand-picked bunch of violets instead of orchids like the other girls.  But it is here that she meets a wealthy young man (Fred MacMurray).   She continues to play her society act until the fateful evening she must bring him home to meet her parents.

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I liked the actors who played Alice’s parents nearly as much as Katherine Hepburn.  They seemed very believable in their roles.  Fred MacMurray played himself but how young he was!  Katharine Hepburn makes you embarrassed along with her at the dance and then convinces as a girl who is desperately acting a part.  I was surprised to learn that this film was a success during the Depression.  It’s not the escapist fare I am used to for 1935.

Alice Adams was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actress.

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Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)

Posted on May 21, 2013 | 2 comments

Charlie Chan in ParisCharlie Chan in Paris Poster
Directed by Lewis Seiler
1935/USA
Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

 

 

Charlie Chan: Joy in heart more desirable than bullet.

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) visits Paris to investigate a bond forging scheme and meets up with a couple of murders in the process.

Charlie Chan in Paris 1

This is a pretty good entry in the mystery series.  I was interested to see Erik Rhodes in the role of a bank employee and usually drunk.  I had never seen him in anything but the two Astaire/Rogers movies in which plays comic Italians. He’s OK but his material doesn’t let him be very funny.

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Roberta (1935)

Posted on May 21, 2013 | 6 comments

RobertaRoberta Poster
Directed by William A. Seiter
1935/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing

 

[box] I won’t dance, why should I?/ I won’t dance, how could I? I won’t dance/ Merci beaucoup, I know that music leads the way to romance/ So if I hold you in my arms I won’t dance —  “I Won’t Dance”, lyrics by by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh[/box]

Astaire and Rogers are fine in supporting roles in this screen adaptation of a Broadway musical penned by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Otto Harbach.

Roberta is the chicest of Parisian fashion houses.   John (Randolph Scott), a sports hero who knows nothing about fashion inherits it from his Aunt Minnie who founded the business.  He becomes partners with his aunt’s assistant and house designer Stephanie (Irene Dunne), a deposed Russian princess.  The “Countess Scharwenka” (Ginger Rogers) is an important client and leading nightclub entertainer.  It turns out that she is actually Liz, a boyhood neighbor of bandleader Huck (Fred Astaire).  Liz gets Huck work in her act and John and Stephanie fall in love, not without many misadventures along the way.

 

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As usual, Fred and Ginger put a smile on my face.  Ginger is particularly good here as the fake countess, complete with Polish accent.  Irene Dunne is in top form both as an actress and a singer.  Even Randolph Scott cracks a smile and loosens up a bit.  Some beautiful standards came out of this: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” ; “I’ll Be Hard to Handle”; “Lovely to Look At”; and “I Won’t Dance.”  All the lovely 30’s dresses are an additional bonus.

“I Won’t Dance” – And he can play the piano like that!

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Posted in 1935, Movie Reviews

Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)

Posted on May 21, 2013 | 10 comments

Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the AgesIntolerance Poster
Directed by D. W. Griffith
1916/USA
Triangle Film Corporation/Wark Producing
Repeat viewing
#5 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 7.9; I say 5.0

 

Prince Belshazzar: [to his princess beloved] The fragrant mystery of your body is greater than the mystery of life.

My definition of a movie I’m glad I don’t have to see again before I die:  any 3+ hour D.W. Griffith silent epic.  I already knew that bad things happen to good people, thank you very much.  Why did you have to take so long to make your point, Mr. Griffith?

I will dispense with a plot summary.  It is sufficient to note that there are four stories linked by an image of Lillian Gish as the eternal mother endlessly rocking a cradle.  The stories take place in ancient Babylon; New-Testament Israel; 16th Century France; and modern-day New York.  Most of them end very badly indeed for the protagonists. There is a last-minute rescue in one of the stories so we don’t all go out and commit suicide.

Intolerance 1

To be fair, this film obviously represented an important technical achievement for its time. There are also moments of some beauty.  For me these are overshadowed by the general tedium and Griffith’s infantilization of women.

All Griffith’s women leads have been directed to prance around and pull “cute” faces – that is when they are not weeping.  Even the Mountain Girl, who shows some bravery and initiative, behaves more like an eight-year-old tomboy than a woman warrior. I found Mae Marsh particularly annoying, though she can also be very touching as well.  Griffith was lucky to find Lillian Gish, who always rises above her material.

I admit that I am influenced by my prejudice against epics and spectaculars in general.  It seems to me that the more extras appear in a movie the less I like it, with some rare exceptions.  Your mileage may vary.

Restoration Trailer

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If You Could Only Cook (1935)

Posted on May 20, 2013 | 2 comments

If You Could Only CookIf You Could Only Cook Poster
Directed by William A. Sieter
1935/USA
Columia Pictures Corporation
First viewing

 

[box] Joan Hawthorne: Say… can you buttle?[/box]

In this pleasant romantic comedy, Jim Buchanan (Herbert Marshall), a young automobile magnate, is soon to wed a gold-digging socialite.  His innovative designs are being rejected by the Board of his company.  He walks out in a huff and meets Joan (Jean Arthur) leafing through the want ads on a park bench.  Joan assumes Jim is out of work too and when she spots an ad for a cook-butler couple suggests they try for the job.  They are hired and later discover the boss (Leo Carrillo) is an ex-bootlegger gangster.  Naturally, they fall in love but their potential romance is prey to several misunderstandings.

IfYouCouldOnlyCook1

I enjoyed this film, mostly thanks to the charm and appeal of its stars.  I can never help rooting for Jean Arthur.  The DVD is part of the “Icons of Screwball Comedy” set.  I think it is misadvertised, being more of a true romantic comedy with plenty of sentiment and little wise cracking.

In England, Columbia promoted the film as a Frank Capra production. Capra, the top director at the studio sued Columbia for unlawful use of his name. The parties settled.  Jean Arthur went on to star in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the next film Capra directed at the studio.

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Peter Ibbetson (1935)

Posted on May 18, 2013 | 6 comments

Peter IbbetsonPeter Ibbetson poster
Directed by Henry Hathaway
1935/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing
#100 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2013 Edition)

 

 

“The wretcheder one is, the more one smokes; and the more one smokes, the wretcheder one gets—a vicious circle.” ― George du Maurier, Peter Ibbetson

This unusual romantic fantasy features some beautiful expressionistic cinematography by Charles Lang and music by Ernest Toch.  Whether the fantasy quite works is a matter of opinion I suppose.

The story begins with two playmates, the boy Gogo and girl Mimsy, who are English expatriates in Paris.  They bicker as children do.  Then Gogo’s mother dies and Mimsy grieves with him.  Probably the most wrenching scene in the entire film is when Gogo’s uncle comes to take him away to England over the heartrending protests of both children.

Segue to perhaps 20 years later and Gogo, now called Peter (Gary Cooper), is an architect in London.  He suffers from a pervasive sense of emptiness that he cannot pinpoint.  He wants to quit his job but his boss convinces him to take a holiday in Paris instead.  There, he visits the house where he grew up, remembers his time with Mimsy again, and realizes the source of his sadness.

He is recalled to England to design a new stables for a Lord and his Lady in Yorkshire. There he meets Mary, the Duchess of Towers (Ann Harding).  They are strangely drawn to each other and discover they share the same dreams at night.  I will stop the plot summary to avoid spoilers but suffice it to say that nothing can separate these two in their dreams any more in life or after death.   The photographic effects come in particularly during extended dream sequences.

Peter Ibbetson 3

I enjoyed the film but it does require a total suspension of disbelief.  Also, although I like both of them, Cooper and Harding, two very grounded earth-bound actors, were perhaps not the best choices for these roles.  The first part of the film with the children and the development of the feelings between the adults worked better than the fantasy for me.

Clip

 

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The Ghost Goes West (1935)

Posted on May 17, 2013 | 4 comments

The Ghost Goes Westghostgoeswest poster
Directed by René Clair
1935/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing

 

Murdoch Glourie (The Ghost): I hate America. It’s worse than the first day of battle.

This enjoyable and atmospheric romantic comedy/fantasy film is a bit reminiscent in tone to The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.  It was the highest grossing film of 1936 in Great Britain.

The Glouries and the McGlaggens are two ancient feuding Scottish families.  In the 18th Century, the Laird of the Glouries sends his womanizing son Murdoch (Robert Donat) off to the battlefield to avenge the honor of the Glouries on the McGlaggens.  Murdoch is killed before he can do this and is doomed to wander Glourie castle until he can find a McGlaggen and get him to apologize and admit the superiority of the Glouries.

In 1935, Donald Glourie (also Robert Donat) is broke and living in the castle which he cannot sell because it is haunted.  Wealthy American Peggy Martin (Jean Peters) discovers the castle and talks her father (Eugene Pallette) into buying it and rebuilding it in Florida.  Donald is smitten with Peggy at first sight but is shy.  Murdoch, the ghost, has no such problems.  The ghost keeps things lively both on the sea voyage to America and after arrival.

GHOST GOES WEST

Robert Donat is, as usual, excellent and very appealing and all the other performances are fine.  Clair has deftly captured the fantasy and historical elements and kept the comedy sparkling.  There is some good satire on American media frenzy and consumerism at the end.  Recommended.

Clip available on TCM:  http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/409420/Ghost-Goes-West-The-Movie-Clip-Enthusiasm-Controllers.html

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews

The Good Fairy (1935)

Posted on May 17, 2013 | 2 comments

The Good FairyGood Fairy Poster
Directed by William Wyler
1935/USA
Universal Pictures
Repeat viewing

 

Dr. Schultz:  The, uh, the pants, I mean, they’re not too tight?
Schlapkohl: That depends entirely on the girls, the pants are all the same size.

This charming film has some of my favorite actors and a witty screenplay by Preston Sturges.  It is a romantic comedy verging on the screwball.

The setting is modern-day (1935) Hungary.  A movie theater owner goes to an orphanage to find an usherette for his theater and selects the sweet, naive Luisa Ginglebuscher (Margaret Sullavan).  On one of her first days in the big city she is invited by a waiter (Reginald Owen) to a party in the hotel where he works.  At the party, she is approached by wealthy Mr. Konrad (Frank Morgan) who tries to seduce her.  This frightens Luisa and she says she is married.  Konrad is not deterred and says he will make her husband rich.  This inspires Luisa with the thought that she could do a good deed for someone like they were taught at the orphanage.  So she selects the name of lawyer Max Sporum (Herbert Marshall) from the phone book.  Konrad goes to see Sporum the next day and gives the bewildered man a lucrative five-year contract.  Sporum and Luisa meet thereafter and go on a shopping spree and things proceed from there.

Good Fairy 1

The plot description doesn’t sound too amusing but I can assure you the movie is.  The dialogue just pops.  I adore Margaret Sullavan, whom I have not seen enough of.  She would charm the pants off an alligator.  Herbert Marshall has probably never been this whimsical and it suits him.  Recommended.

Trailer

 

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Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)

Posted on May 16, 2013 | 7 comments

Gold Diggers of 1935Gold Diggers of 1935 Poster
Directed by Busby Berkeley
1935/USA
Warner Bros
First viewing?

 

I could have sworn I had seen this before but now I think it’s just that the “Lullaby of Broadway” sequence has been anthologized so often.  It is fairly entertaining but does not hold a candle to those sassy, sexy pre-Code Busby Berkeley musicals.

The story concerns the staff and guests at a luxury resort.  Wealthy Mrs. Prentiss (Ann Brady) arrives with her randy son Humbolt (Frank McHugh) and bored daughter Ann (Gloria Stewart) in tow.  Soon thereafter,  Ann’s fiance, daffy millionaire snuff-box collector T. Mosley Thorpe (Hugh Herbert), shows up.  Ann hates Mosley and is longing to have fun.  Her mother agrees that she can have fun that summer if she will promise to marry Mosley afterward and hires hotel clerk Dick Curtis (Dick Powell) to escort Ann around.  It doesn’t take a genius to tell where that part of the plot is going ….

Meanwhile, impresario Nicoleff (Adolphe Menjou) is deep in debt to the hotel.  The hotel manager plots to have Nicoleff direct Mrs. Prentiss’s annual charity show.  Nicoleff plots to milk as much money out of Mrs. Prentiss as possible.  The whole thing ends with the show, naturally.  With Glenda Farrell as Mosley’s gold digging private stenographer.

Gold Diggers of 1935 1

This is closer to a traditional musical comedy than the earlier Warner backstage musicals in that the opening minutes are a kind of artificially staged narrative and Dick Powell spontaneously bursts into song a couple of times.  Everyone is pretty good and Menjou is very funny as a Russian theatrical type.  The production numbers can be rather clunky at times.  I never fail to be shocked by the tragic ending to the “Lullaby of Broadway” sequence.  It seems so out of place.  Maybe the girl needed to be punished for staying out all night?

Trailer

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Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Posted on May 16, 2013 | 4 comments

Once Upon a Time in the West (“C’era una volta il West”)Once Upon a Time in the West Poster
Directed by Sergio Leone
1968/Italy
Finanzia San Marco/Rafran Cinematografica/Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing
#479 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

Jill: What’s he waiting for out there? What’s he doing?
Cheyenne: He’s whittlin’ on a piece of wood. I’ve got a feeling when he stops whittlin’… Somethin’s gonna happen.

The Random Number Generator came through this week with a really special movie.  I’m not usually a fan of violence and this is plenty violent.  But the images and music are so beautiful and the staging is so stylish that this is a favorite.  I still don’t understand some of the plot points but that doesn’t matter too much to me either.

Once Upon a Time in the West 1

It is the time of the construction of the transcontinental railroad.  A railroad baron has hired Frank (Henry Fonda), a sadistic killer, and his gang of thugs to terrorize landowners so he can acquire land for the railroad cheap.  Frank and his men massacre Brett McBain and his family who own the land where a station will be built.  They don’t know that McBain has married and his wife Jill (Claudia Cardinale) is on the way.

once-upon-at-time-in-the-west 3

Jill meets “Harmonica” (Charles Bronson), a loner with a vendetta against Frank, and Cheyenne (Jason Robards), the leader of a bandit gang.  They protect her and go after Frank and his men.  Of course, there are numerous gun battles and other mayhem along the way.

Once Upon a Time in the West 2

In common with many classic Hollywood westerns, this is really a story about the end of the Old West due to the encroachment of “civilization” via the railroad.  The railroad is represented as corrupt and, in fact, its head is a physical as well as a moral cripple.  The mood is elegiac and almost operatic.  Scenes play out slowly and deliberately but always with a flair that keeps one’s interest.  The camera work is just amazing, with awesome close-ups and awe-inspiring vistas.

At the same time that he plays homage to several different American westerns, Leone is sending them up.  I actually laughed out loud a couple of times during the movie’s opening with Jack Elam and the fly and Woody Strode and the water dropping on his hat.  The dialogue is also vintage Leone and endlessly quotable.

Trailer

 

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