Think Fast, Mr. Moto Directed by Norman Foster Written by Howard Ellis Smith and Norman Foster based on a story by J.P. Marquand USA/1937 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing
[box] Kentaro Moto: Half the world spends its time laughing at the other half, and both are fools.[/box]
This was the first in the series of eight Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre. Lorre is meant to simulate a Japanese with the addition of glasses and some funny teeth but he is still 100% Lorre, complete with German accent. In this one, Mr. Moto has his eye on a diamond smuggling gang during a Pacific crossing en route to Shanghai. It’s well-made B fare. With Sig Ruman as a bad guy and J. Carrol Naish as an Arab henchman.
Black Legion Directed by Archie Mayo
Written by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines based on a story by Robert Lord
1937/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing
Humphrey Bogart had one of his first leading roles in Black Legion, the story of a working man seduced by a Ku Klux Clan-style organization.
Frank Taylor (Bogart) is known as the best machine operator in the shop, at least by his friends. The men kid Joe Dombrowski for always having his nose in a book. When a job as foreman opens up, Frank goes shopping for a new car. But the job goes to Joe and Frank is outraged. Frank becomes easy prey to the Black Legion, a secret organization advocating “America for Americans” and terrorizing foreigners. After they chase Dombrowski and his father out of town, Frank gets the coveted job. Soon, however, his life is in a tailspin and Frank discovers that it is far easier to join the Legion than to leave it. With Dick Foran as Frank’s friend Joe and Ann Sheridan as Joe’s girl.
This is a good solid Warner Brothers Depression-era social issues film. Bogart is very good. There are a lot of good 1937 details, such as that Frank is looking at an economical car that gets 18 miles per gallon.
You Only Live Once Directed by Fritz Lang Written by Gene Towne and C. Graham Baker 1937/USA Walter Wanger Productions
Repeat viewing
[box] Joan Graham: Anywhere’s our home. On the road. Out there on a cold star. Anywhere’s our home.[/box]
Fritz Lang continues with the man pursued by an uncaring society theme explored in M and Fury. While this does not hit the heights achieved by those films, it is very good and Fonda turns in an outstanding early performance.
Joan Graham (Sylvia Sidney) has waited three years for Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda) to be released from prison. Eddie is a three-time loser and everyone warns Joan away from him but to no avail. Eddie emerges with a huge chip on his shoulder, convinced that the world has it in for him. This is despite the fact that Joan’s boss the Public Defender (Barton MacLaine) got him a job as a truck driver.
Joan’s love is the one good thing Eddie sees in his life and they marry immediately. But they are thrown out of their honeymoon hotel and Eddie loses his job when he fails to return to his dispatcher on time after a run. No one has sympathy for an ex-con. While Eddie is out looking for work, six people are killed in a violent bank holdup and Eddie’s hat is found at the scene. The rest of the film follows Eddie and Joan’s sad story as he is re-imprisoned and they go on the lam.
I have a couple of nits to pick but basically this is a powerful film. Fonda is just superb as a hardened criminal with a soft spot for his girl. He is so excellent as a tough guy that it is hard to understand where his noble persona came from. The escape through the fog and some of the other shots reflect Lang’s mastery of the expressionist style. Some have referred to this as an early film noir and it definitely has that flavor.
I think this film suffered particularly from the Production Code. I read that Lang was forced to tone down the violence and the ending comes out of left field. It also features a rather ludicrous birth without pregnancy. This stuff is minor, though. Recommended.
You Only Live Once is currently available to watch streaming on Netflix Instant and Amazon Prime Instant in the U.S.
Dead End Directed by William Wyler
Written by Lillian Hellman based on the play by Sidney Kingsley
1937/USA
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
First viewing
[box] Hugh ‘Baby Face’: [Hugh doesn’t give a street kid money when the kid doesn’t deliver] Nothing for nothing, kid.[/box]
This gritty story of the mean streets of New York has a lot going for it, including some outstanding performances and a carefully rendered setting.
The story takes place near the Hudson River where highrise apartment buildings have sprung up that overlook a squalid tenement. A gang of unruly boys camps out on the back stoop of one of these posh buildings rough housing and annoying all the passers-by. Dave (Joel McCrea) grew up here. He has been educated as an architect but can only get odd jobs. He is infatuated with the beautiful Kay (Wendy Barrie) who lives in the apartment building. Drina (Silvia Sidney) is a striking factory worker who is bringing up her younger brother Tommy in the tenements on her own. Drina loves Dave.
Into this environment comes fugitive murderer Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart). Martin has changed his appearance with plastic surgery and has come back to his old stomping grounds after a long absence to see his mother (Marjorie Main) and girl (Claire Trevor).
Tommy joins the gang of kids. They engage in all kinds of petty mischief but things get serious when they beat and rob a rich kid from the building. In the meantime, Martin’s reunion with his mother and girl do not go as expected. Martin’s anger leads him to attempt a desperate crime.
I thought this was really good in all aspects. While Bogart is still playing a thug, he does so very sensitively. We can see the pain in his eyes as his mother and girlfriend do not live up to his dream. The other actors are all fine. The collective “lead” is really Leo Gorsey, Huntz Hall and the rest of the Dead End Kids. They give the film much of its life and have the timing down perfectly. While the plot contains few surprises, this genre has seldom been done better. Recommended.
Dead End was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Claire Trevor), Best Cinematography (Gregg Toland) and Best Art Direction; (Richard Day). This was the first of seven movies featuring the Dead End Kids. The group subsequently evolved into the East End Kids and Bowery Boys and made many B comedies.
Adaptation. Directed by Spike Jonze Written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman 2002/USA Beverly Detroit/Clinica Estetico/Good Machine/Intermedia/Magnet Productions/Propaganda Films
First viewing
#1044 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (Combined List – 2013 ver.)
IMDb users say 7.7/10; I say 8.0/10
[box] Donald Kaufman: I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn’t have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.
Charlie Kaufman: But she thought you were pathetic
Donald Kaufman: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That’s what I decided a long time ago.[/box]
Spike Jones and Charlie Kaufman have created a weird and wacky portal into the writer’s mind. Unfortunately, this was not a place I wanted to go particularly.
Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) has an assignment to adapt Susan Orleans’s (Meryl Streep) sprawling novel The Orchid Thief for the screen. He has severe writer’s block compounded with depression and obsesses endlessly on his baldness, fatness, and lack of luck with the ladies. Charlie’s twin brother Donald (also Cage) lives with him and is writing a screenplay about a serial killer with multiple personalities. Donald is everything Charlie is not – cheerful, confident, and a lady killer.
Much of the movie is made up of Charlie’s fantasies about the relationship of Susan Orleans with the book’s protagonist orchid hunter John LaRoche (Chris Cooper). Eventually, he puts himself into their story.
I must start by noting that I have not read The Orchid Thief and don’t really know where elements of that book and the script intersect. I assume the film can be enjoyed without that information. I also need to say that I could find no fault with the production itself. The acting, in particular, is quite impressive. I expect good things out of Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper but Nicholas Cage was a revelation here. He nailed those twins. Spike Jones directing style fits Kaufman’s vision perfectly.
This is a unique and wildly creative film but also a self-indulgent one with a kind of winking hipster sensibility. It failed to engage me on an emotional or aesthetic level. I can see how folks that are interested in seeing the lengths to which a writer’s imagination can take him would love it.
Chris Cooper won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film also received nominations in the categories of Best Actor (Cage) and Best Supporting Actress (Streep) The nomination of Charlie and Donald Kaufman for Best Adapted Screenplay made Donald the first truly fictitious person nominated for an Oscar.
Heidi Directed by Allan Dwan
Written by Walter Ferris and Julien Josephson based on the book by Johanna Spyri
1937/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing
[box] Heidi: I am not her child! She’s a bad lady! She tried to sell me to gypsies! Please. Please, let the Grandfather take me home. He didn’t mean to do anything bad. I’ll work hard and pay back for everything he broke. So will Swanli and Bearli.[/box]
I loved the book as a girl and was pleased to find it when I cleaned out my parents’ house. Although Shirley Temple didn’t fit the image I had of Heidi in my head, I have a soft spot for this movie. The story of an orphan who warms the heart of her hermit grandfather was made for little Shirley but she plays it blessedly straight in this one.
The orphan Heidi (Temple) is literally dumped at the mountain cabin of her grandfather when her aunt tires of caring for her. The Grandfather (Jean Herscholt) is none too pleased to see her as he disowned her father for marrying her mother and has not spoken to anyone since. But Heidi’s sweet nature gets through to the old man and he eventually warms up to the local villagers as well.
Then Heidi’s aunt shows up and steals Heidi away to serve as the companion of the crippled rich girl Klara in the big city. Klara’s nanny Frau Rottenmeier hates Heidi on sight and treats her badly. But Klara loves the girl and Frau Rottenmeier can’t get rid of Heidi. When Klara’s father returns from his travels, he falls in love with Heidi as well. Heidi’s only wish is to go home to the Grandfather. But events cause Frau Rottenmeier’s jealousy to get the better of her, threatening to separate Heidi from her home forever.
It had been years and years since I had seen this film. I had forgotten how superb Jean Herscholt was in his role. Shirley has a regrettable, but clearly mandatory, song and dance routine at the beginning but after that the film is a straight drama. I thought she acquitted herself rather well in the acting department.
The Prisoner of Zenda Directed by John Cromwell
Written by John Balderston, Edward E. Rose et al based on the novel by Anthony Hope
1937/USA
Selznick International Pictures
First viewing
[box] Rudolph Rassendyll: But I’ve reformed.
Princess Flavia: Almost beyond recognition. You seem to be an entirely different person.[/box]
Before I get started, I have to confess that my viewing conditions for this film were far from ideal. My rental DVD became unplayable about three-quarters of the way in. I then resorted to watching the remainder of the film on YouTube in parts. After I was about 10 minutes from the end I discovered that one or more scenes were missing from the YouTube footage, including the climactic sword fight! Since I am not going to watch this again for purposes of this exercise, I will go ahead and review it. What I saw was an entertaining adventure with an accomplished cast, though it does break down into soppy romantic melodrama at the very end.
Major Rudolf Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) is an Englishman taking a fishing holiday in a Ruritanian Eastern European country. There he meets up with his distant relation and double Prince Rudolf (also Colman) on the eve of the latter’s coronation. The Prince is accompanied by his stalwarts Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith) and Fritz von Tarlenheim (David Niven). Prince Rudolf is drugged by his evil illegitimate brother Michael (Raymond Massey) who wants to seize the throne. His friends convince Rassendyll to be crowned in the Prince’s place.
In the meantime, Michael has been plotting with his cohort in crime Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) Michael plans to rule as Regent and then marry the Prince’s fiancée Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll), who is next in line for the throne. This makes Michael’s girlfriend (Mary Astor) extremely jealous. Rassendyll is crowned. He and Flavia fall madly in love at the coronation.
The rest of the story traces the twists and turns of the intrigue as Michael continues to pursue the throne after the coronation.
With a cast like this, the movie has to be fun, right? I thoroughly enjoyed it despite my many trials. Madeleine Carroll plays a very different sort of character than her usual and has never been more meltingly lovely. The men, despite looking very similar with their dark mustaches, are all at the top of their game. I could have lived without so many love scenes. Recommended.
The Prisoner of Zenda was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Lyle R. Newman) and Best Score (Alfred Newman – the first of his 44 nominations). It was listed in the National Film Registry in 1991. This was the fourth adaptation of the novel and the first sound version. The story was remade in 1952 with Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr and as a spoof in 1979 starring Peter Sellers.
Shall We Dance Directed by Mark Sandrich
Written by Allan Scott, Ernest Pagano et al
1937/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat Viewing
[box]The way you hold your knife/
The way we danced till three/
The way you changed my life/
No they can’t take that away from me — Ira Gershwin, “They
Can’t Take That Away from Me”[/box]
I love the ’30’s. Every year some new Astaire/Rogers bliss.
The film opens in Paris. Petrov (Fred Astaire) is a famous ballet dancer. His real name is Pete Peters, he longs to dance to swing music, and he loves Broadway star Linda Keene (Ginger Rogers) from afar. Linda longs to get away from co-stars who paw her and decides to return to New York and marry her stuffy millionaire boyfriend. When Pete finds out about this, he decides to book a ticket on the same ship. His manager (Edward Everett Horton) tells Pete’s lady friend that Pete can’t take her with him because he is married. After some initial resistance, Pete and Linda get friendly on the ship. All this blows up when the jilted lady in Paris tells the press about Pete’s “marriage” and the rumor mill turns that into a marriage with Linda. Linda and Pete spend the rest of the film having misunderstandings and patching them up. With Eric Blore as a hotel concierge.
This was the first of the Astaire/Rogers films to be scored by George and Ira Gershwin. We get some of the great standards of the 30’s set to some outstanding dance sequences. There is “Who Has the Last Laugh” danced by an embarrassed Ginger with Fred at a party celebrating her engagement to another guy and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” danced on roller skates. Fred also has a fantastic tap solo to “Slap That Bass” and rhythm set to the rattle of engine room of the ocean liner. The comedy lacks some of the pizzaz of the pair’s earlier outings but all in all this should not be missed.
“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” was nominated for the Best Song Oscar but, somehow, lost to “Sweet Leilani” from Waikiki Wedding.
Clip – “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (followed by their dance to the same song from The Barkleys of Broadway)
Captains Courageous Directed by Victor Fleming Written by John Lee Mahin, Marc Connelly, and Dale Van Every based on a novel by Rudyard Kipling 1937/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing
#104 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Manuel Fidello: Wake up, Little Fish. Hey, wake up, wake up! Somebody think you dead, they have celebrations.[/box]
I thought this one was very moving, with some great performances.
Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) has been spoiled rotten by his wealthy widower father (Melvyn Douglas) and terrorizes the servants and his classmates at school. He has developed bad habits such as bribery, threats, and bullying. These eventually get him suspended from school. So his father takes Harvey with him on a voyage to England on business where Harvey continues to be naughty. As the result of one of his escapades, he is swept overboard. He is rescued by Portuguese fisherman Manuel (Spencer Tracy) in a dory and taken back to his cod fishing vessel helmed by Captain Disko (Lionel Barrymore). Harvey continues to try to lord it over the crew but finds it gets him nowhere. Harvey eventually develops a close bond with Manuel.
This is by far the most nuanced performance I have seen Freddie Bartholomew give. It was really great seeing him be a rotter – but a thinking rotter if you know what I mean. This made the more vulnerable parts near the end twice as poignant. Spencer Tracy was also splendid as the happy-go-lucky Manuel. The scenes at sea are quite good and the music by Franz Waxman is rousing. This is heart-tugging material and it worked on my heart exactly as intended.
Spencer Tracy won the first of his two Best Actor Oscars for his work on this film. Captains Courageous was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Writing (Screenplay), and Best Film Editing.
Topper Directed by Norman Z. McLeod Written by Jack Jeyne, Eric Hatch, and Eddie Moran based on the novel by Thorne Smith 1936/USA Hal Roach Studios
Repeat viewing
[box] Cosmo Topper: So I’m a ditherer? Well, I’m jolly well going to dither, then![/box]
I was thoroughly entertained by this sophisticated comedy.
George (Cary Grant) and Marion (Constance Bennett) Kerby are a madcap wealthy young couple somewhat in the mode of Nick and Nora Charles but without the crime solving. One night they go on a spree and then visit the office of stuffy banker Cosmo Topper (Roland Young). George is speeding back when the brakes on their fancy convertible fail and they crash into a tree. Their ghosts emerge from their dead corpses at the scene of the accident. They cannot meet their maker without doing a good deed and they decide it should be showing the henpecked Topper how to have a good time. With Billie Burke as Topper’s wife, Alan Mowbray as the Toppers’ butler, and Eugene Pallette as a hotel detective.
Cary Grant and Constance Bennett are just the epitome of urbane charm in this escapist fable. Roland Young is at his whimsical best, too. I thought it was refreshing that everybody could see the ghosts when they materialized, not just Topper. It was just that they had to conserve their ectoplasm so didn’t materialize unnecessarily.
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.
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