The Clairvoyant (1935)

Posted on April 24, 2013 | 2 comments

The Clairvoyantthe clairvoyant 1935 Poster
Directed by Maurice Elvey
1935/UK
Gaumont British Picture Corporation
First viewing

 

Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron – namely, that he is a blockhead. – Ambrose Bierce

I am moving into 1935 for the moment in order to catch a couple of films that are disappearing from Netflix Instant on May 1.  This is the story of Maximus, a fake music hall mind-reader (Claude Rains) who with the assistance of his wife (Fay Wray) performs such stunts as “guessing” items she collects from the audience.  One night when Christine (Jane Baxter) is present in the crowd, Maximus experiences a true clairvoyant trance.  Later, he begins to prophecy the future when Christine is around.  This eventually gets him into trouble as is blamed for the catastrophes he predicts.

The Clairvoyant still

This movie started out extremely strong.  Claude Rains is, of course, brilliant and Faye Wray is appealing.  The screenplay was written by long-time Hitchcock collaborator Charles Bennett and made at Hitchcock’s British studio and early parts of the piece had a definite Hitchcockian feel.  Unfortunately, the story descends into melodrama and the ending is really weak.  Still, I’m glad I watched this while I could.  I love Rains and he was in top form here.

 

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The Marines Are Coming (1934)

Posted on April 23, 2013 | 2 comments

The Marines Are ComingThe Marines Are Coming DVD
Directed by David Howard
1934/USA
Mascot Pictures
First viewing

 

Lt. William “Wild Bill” Traylor: Anybody can obey orders. It takes genius to win a war![/box]

Poverty row comedy about wise-cracking Marine Corps Officer Bill Traylor (William Haines) who is always in trouble with the brass.  When Traylor arrives in San Diego, he assigned to duty under his nemesis Captain Benton (Conrad Nagle).  He promptly latches on to Benton’s girlfriend (Esther Walston), while avoiding the advances of Rosita, a stereotypical Latin spitfire who has been following him from post to post insisting he marry her.  When Traylor is forced to resign his commission, he returns as an enlisted man and the shenanigans continue in an unnamed Latin American country where the Marines are fighting bandits.The Marines Are Coming 2

This film is notable mostly for being the last film William Haines ever made.  I didn’t like it much.  All the principals seem to have been instructed to plaster a big grin on their face and give it their all.  Everybody complied but that didn’t make the film amusing to me.

William_Haines_1930

William Haines in 1930

The film, however, did inspire me to look up Haines’s biography.  He was a very popular silent star, regularly named #1 male box-office draw at the end of the silent era.  He was released by MGM in the early thirties, reportedly due to a fight with Louis B. Mayer, who wanted Haines to end his relationship with his lover Jimmie Shields and marry a woman.  Haines and Shields went on to be a couple for over 50 years and Haines had a very successful 40-year career as an interior designer.

Clip: Opening

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Broadway Bill (1934)

Posted on April 23, 2013 | 1 comment

Broadway Billbroadway-bill-poster
Directed by Frank Capra
1934/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing

 

Dan Brooks: Doesn’t anything ever change in this mausoleum?
Alice Higgins: Yes. Bedspreads and underwear.

Frank Capra made this pleasant comedy between It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.  Higginsville is a one-man town; all the business are owned by J.L. Higgins (Walter Connelly) and run by his various sons-in-law.  Dan Brooks (Warner Baxter) is married to eldest daughter Margaret (Helen Vinson) and is reluctantly managing a paper box business but his passion is his race horse Broadway Bill.  The youngest Higgins daughter, Alice (Myrna Loy), is a free spirit like Dan and is secretly in love with him.  Dan, however, treats Alice like a kid.  One fine day, Dan decides he can take no more of Higginsville and sets out with no money to enter Broadway Bill in an important Derby race with the support of faithful groom Whitey (Clarence Muse) and Alice.  The rest of the picture follows their trials and tribulations on the way to the big race.  With Margaret Hamilton in a small role as a landlady and Frankie Darro as a jocky.

Broadway Bill 1

Although the ending is weak and the story is a bit sentimental, I enjoyed this a lot.  Frank Capra seems to get good performances from all his actors. Warner Baxter, who is generally ultra-intense, is as relaxed as I have ever seen him and even funny at times.  Myrna Loy is great as always.  I was also pleased with the treatment of the character of the African-American groom.  Although there is some stereotyping of course, he is portrayed as a real member of the team.  It was so refreshing after a couple of Stepin Fetchin films in a row!

I read that Capra was not a big fan of this film because Warner Baxter was afraid of horses and Capra thought it showed.  I didn’t notice.  Capra remade the story in 1950 as Riding High with Bing Crosby and Colleen Gray.

 

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Les Misérables (1934)

Posted on April 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

Les MisérablesLes Miserables Poster
Directed by Raymond Bernard
1934/France
Pathé-Natan
First viewing

 

Jean Valjean to Inspector Javert: Each man has his own notion of duty.

Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean

 “Love is the foolishness of men, and the wisdom of God.” ― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

This excellent four-and-a-half hour adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel, noted as being the most complete rendering of the story, was released as three films. I watched one film a day over three days. Part One: “Une tempête sous un crâne” (Tempest in a Skull) covers Jean Valjean’s release from prison and redemption in the encounter with the Bishop through the death of Fantine.  Part Two: “Les Thénardier”(The Thenardiers) covers little Cosette’s treatment at the hands of the Thenardiers and her rescue then flash forwards eight years to Paris to relate Cosette’s romance with Marius and the Thenardiers’ threats against Jean Valjean.  Part Three: Liberté, liberté chérie (Freedom, dear Freedom) covers the Uprising of 1832 and the conflict at the barricades through the end of the novel.  There is certainly enough plot to justify the long running time!

Les Miserables 2

The highlight of the film is Harry Baur’s portrayal of Jean Valjean.  He is a powerful, taciturn, and unassuming man, equally convincing as a convict and as a gentleman.  Baur is one of those actors that can express a world of emotion with a glance and is superb.  Charles Vanel plays Javert as a relentless enforcer of the law, there is no evil posturing here.  The other performances are not quite up to these two but are quite adequate.

The film is filled with beautiful expressionist lighting and interesting camera angels.  Little Cosette’s trek to fetch water in the dark is unforgettable and reminiscent of Snow White’s adventures with its scary faces seen in every tree.  Although the filming was all done on the back lot, the set design and costuming are lavish and evocative of 19th Century France.  Finally, there is a fabulous score by Arthur Honegger.  Very highly recommended.

Jean Valjean and the Bishop

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Stand Up and Cheer! (1934)

Posted on April 22, 2013 | 4 comments

Stand Up and Cheer!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Directed by Hamilton MacFadden
1934/USA
Fox Film Corporation
First viewing?

 

The President decides to improve morale during the Depression by creating a Department of Amusement headed by Secretary Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter).  Cromwell selects Mary Adams (Madge Evans) to run the Children’s Division, and they promptly fall in love.  Meanwhile, some wicked industrialists are trying to sabotage Cromwell’s efforts to cheer up the nation.

Stand Up and Cheer 1

Dig those hats!

The plot is an excuse for a variety review and, aside from the “Baby Take a Bow” number with Shirley Temple and James Dunn, this movie is a godawful mess. The routines progressively grow worse and worse until we are left with “Broadway’s Gone Hill-Billy”, a truly awful sketch involving Stepin Fetchit and a penguin voiced by a Jimmy Durante impersonator (!!!), and the “We’re Out of the Red” finale.  Yes, these are every bit as bad as they sound.

James Dunn

The ability of James Dunn to overcome this dreadful material led me to look up his biography. I really thought he was wonderful in 1931’s Bad Girl and was wondering what became of him. It turns out that it was the old story of alcholism rendering a talented actor unemployable. Dunn did have a comeback in 1945’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar but he retreated again into obscurity.

Website dedicated to James Dunn:  http://rememberingjimmy.com/about-james-dunn/biography/

Clip – “Baby, Take a Bow”

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Posted on April 22, 2013 | 1 comment

Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyTinker Tailor Poster
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
France/UK/Germany/2011
Studio Canal/Karla Films/Kinowelt Filmproduktion/Working Title Films
#1096 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die (combined list)
First viewing
IMDb users say 7.1; I say 7.0

George Smiley: [on Karla] He’s a fanatic. And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.

This is based on the John le Carré novel. The plot is really complicated so I will just hit the high points.  Control (John Hurt), the Head of British Intelligence, is forced to retire after an operation in Hungary goes badly wrong.  He had sent an agent on a secret mission to uncover a Soviet mole in the top management of the agency. George Smiley (Gary Oldman) retires at the same time.

Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy 3

Control and the “Circus”

New management pursues the highly compartmentalized Witchcraft Project in hopes of luring the U.S. to share intelligence. Later, the Minister also begins to believe there is a mole and hires Smiley as an outsider to ferret him out. Smiley uncovers layer after layer of betrayal, spies of country, lovers of each other, and friend of friend. Also starring Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy-image

Spying on the spies

This kept my interest for the whole 2+ hours but I was not invested in any of the characters, with the possible exception of Smiley, so I could not get worked up about the solution of the mystery. It is one of those plots that throws the viewer into a mix of flashbacks and current scenes without any exposition. The story got progressively more engaging but I find this kind of thing also keeps me at a distance.

On further reflection, however, the pieces kept coming together and I’ve come to the conclusion that the film worked better than it first appeared.  I especially liked the use of the scenes between the child Bill and his teacher Jim Prideaux.  These went right over my head while I was watching.  I wound up raising my rating from 7 to 8 out of 10.

I thought the best thing about the movie was the opportunity to enjoy some top-notch acting by all the principals. I have never seen Gary Oldman give a bad performance and this was particularly fine. I also find Colin Firth awfully easy on the eyes and was pleased to find him here.

tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-trailer 7

Oldman’s expressive face

When did the movies start to need to show a bathtub full of intestines to convey the idea that someone has been brutally murdered?  The person would be equally dead with a couple of bullet holes!  There were at least three or four really gruesome deaths in this one.  Yuck.

Trailer

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Born to Be Bad (1934)

Posted on April 21, 2013 | 4 comments

Born to Be BadBorn to Be Bad Poster
Directed by Lowell Sherman
1934/USA
20th Century Pictures
First viewing

 

Malcolm Trevor: You’re just a beautiful bad girl.

Loretta Young plays Letty Strong, an unwed mother who works as a “model” and “sales promoter” to support herself and her seven-year-old son, Mickey.  Life has made her hard as nails and she is raising her son to be the same.  She sees a way to cash in when a dairy truck driven by Malcolm Trevor (Cary Grant) runs into Mickey.  They sue and Mickey fakes an injury.  When Trevor’s side proves this, the judge takes Mickey away from Lottie and puts him in an institution.  Trevor and his wife volunteer to take care of Mickey.  Lottie seduces Trevor in hopes of blackmailing him into returning her son.

Born to Be Bad 1

Henry Travers zips up Loretta Young’s dress

This movie is Pre-Code and how.  We don’t even have to look up the date of release to know this.  Young is disrobing down to her lacy lingerie within five minutes of the opening and we have a plot featuring illegitimacy, loose living, and adultery.  Unfortunately, the film could be better.  I have never seen Cary Grant act quite so badly as he does here.  To be fair, the script doesn’t do him any favors.  Loretta Young is good but not completely convincing as a “bad girl”.  I can recommend this mostly for the beautiful gowns and a glimpse at a world that will not appear in Hollywood films for the next 30 years.  It is just over an hour long.

Clip

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Posted in 1934

Music Land (1935)

Posted on April 20, 2013 | 1 comment

Music LandSilly Symphonies DVD
Directed by Wilfred Jackson (uncredited)
USA/1985
Walt Disney Productions
Second viewing

 

Music Land is one of the Disney “Silly Symphony” animated cartoon shorts.  The Princess of the Land of Symphony (a violin) and the Prince of the Isle of Jazz (a saxophone) fall in love, much to the disapproval of their parents.  A war ensues. Peace is achieved through the wedding of the Queen of Symphony (a viola) and the King of Jazz (an alto saxophone) on the Bridge of Harmony.  The story is told in music.  There is no dialog.  This is fun and shows Disney’s build up to what would take flower in Fantasia.

Music Land

 

Complete cartoon short (10 min.)

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The Thin Man (1934)

Posted on April 20, 2013 | 8 comments

The Thin Manthe-thin-man-movie-poster-1934-1010174225
Directed by W. S. Van Dyke
1934/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Umpteenth viewing
#138 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb Users say 8.0/10; I say 9.0/10

Nick Charles: I’m a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune.
Nora Charles: I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids.
Nick Charles: It’s not true. He didn’t come anywhere near my tabloids.

An inventor mysteriously disappears and is blamed for the murder of his girlfriend and her possible paramour.  His daughter (Margaret O’Sullivan) appeals to retired detective Nick Charles (William Powell).  Charles would prefer to enjoy the high life with his rich, beautiful, and witty wife Nora (Myrna Loy) but she thinks it would be exciting for him to pursue the case.

Having a Merry Christmas

Having a Merry Christmas

I have seen this many times and I always forget who the murderer is.  That is because the mystery is just a vehicle to showcase the fantastic repartee of Loy and Powell.  They make the perfect married couple, playfully bickering but obviously in love.  It is also the ideal escapist fare when one has, say, spent a whole day watching a manhunt in Boston and thinking about people who have lost their lives and limbs.

Trailer

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1934, Movie Reviews

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Kiss and Make-up (1934)

Posted on April 18, 2013 | 2 comments

Kiss and Make-upKiss and Make-up Poster
Directed by Harlan Thompson
1934/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing

 

Tagline: …a racy romance of a famous beauty doctor

Cary Grant plays Dr. Maurice Lamar, a Parisian plastic surgeon and beauty expert in high demand.  His efficient secretary Anne (Helen Mack) is in love with him.  His “masterpiece” is Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin), though her husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton) does not approve of the changes the doctor has wrought and divorces her.  Maurice marries Eve but is perfection all it is cracked up to be?

Kiss and Make-up 1

This movie was released just before the Production Code began to be enforced and you can sure tell by the double entendres and the amount of cheesecake on offer. In case there was any doubt, the first scene has the good doctor asking Toby Wing to disrobe and she is down to her scanties in a flash. The film also served as a showcase for the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934 so there are multiple parts for the lovely starlets as the doctor’s assistants or patients.

The plot is slender and unremarkable. Good for something light or to see Cary Grant sing and look young and handsome. The art deco sets are also very nice.

Clip – Cary Grant sings “Love Divided by Two”

 

 

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