Tag Archives: Hollywood

Easy Living (1937)

Easy LivingEasy-living poster
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Preston Sturges and Vera Caspary
1937/USA
Paramount Pictures

Repeat viewing

 

Mr. Louis Louis: I don’t know what I’m gonna do, but I better start doin it.

Writer Preston Sturges includes all the elements in Easy Living that would make the films he directed in the 40’s such classics.

International banker J.B. Ball (Edward Arnold) is in a chronically bad mood.  It gets even worse when he discovers his wife has purchased a $58,000 sable coat.  He gets so mad he throws it off the roof.  The coat lands on working girl Mary Smith (Jean Arthur) ruining her hat.  When Mary tries to return the coat to Ball, he not only lets her keep it but buys her a new hat.  A series of people misunderstand their relationship, including eventually Ball’s son John (Ray Milland), who has fallen for Mary.  With a number of the character actors who would later appear in the Sturges stock company including Franklin Pangborn, Luis Alberni, and William Demerest.

Easy Living 1Although this does not have quite the sparkle of the films Sturges directed, I enjoy it a lot. Jean Arthur is delightful and who would imagine Edward Arnold would be so accomplished at performing pratfalls.

Clip

Lost Horizon (1937)

Lost Horizon
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin based on the novel by James Hilton
1937/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Repeat viewing

 

[box]

[first lines]Book Pages: In these days of wars and rumors of wars – haven’t you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight? [/box]

I think it is very hard to make a compelling movie about big ideas.  Capra tried and failed with this one in my opinion.

Diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Coleman), who is looking forward to being named as the next British Foreign Secretary, is working to evacuate expatriates from China during a local revolution. He and a few others manage to get out on the last plane but it starts flying west instead of east and crashes in the Himalayas.  There, the group is rescued and taken to a community called Shangri La in the beautiful Blue Valley where all is moderation and peace and there is no illness or death.  The founders of the lamasery at Shangri La are devoted to collecting art and literature so it will be saved when mankind destroys itself. This is right up Robert’s alley but the other passengers, particularly Robert’s volatile brother George (John Howard), smell a plot. With Sam Jaffe as the High Llama, H.B. Warner as a high official; Thomas Mitchell as a passenger on the lam; Edward Everett Horton as a paleontologist passenger; and Jane Wyatt as the woman who has dreamed of Robert from her haven in Shangri La.

This film was apparently over three hours long when it premiered (and bombed).  Capra then cut it to 135 minutes.  Over the years it was further cut until the commonly viewed version was 108 minutes.  I watched the AFI/UCLA restored version that reinstates all 135 minutes of the original release print (some with sound but no footage).  This was a noble work but, by reinstating some of the speechifying, accentuates the basic problems with the picture.  I just didn’t care about any of the characters.  All of them seemed to stand for something or other rather than being real people.  The cinematography and music are nice, though, and the action sequences are pretty good.

Clip

 

Stage Door (1937)

Stage Door
Directed by Gregory La Cava
Written by Morry Ryskind and Anthony Veiller from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman
1937/USA
RKO Radio Pictures

Repeat viewing

 

[box] Jean Maitland: [to Linda Shaw as she is leaving for a dinner date] Don’t chew the bones and give yourself away![/box]

I love me some snappy one liners and this movie about the residents at a women’s theatrical boarding house is full of them.  And what a cast!

Stage Door is not an extremely plot-driven movie but the central story concerns wealthy cultured newcomer Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) who moves into the Footlight Club where she is surrounded by hardened, struggling Broadway performers.  She shares a room with  wise-cracking Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers).    Among the many colorful characters at the boarding house is serious actress Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds) who hasn’t worked in a year and is now going hungry while dreaming of being cast in a new play. There is a subplot about various girls’ adventures with womanizing producer Anthony Powell (Adolphe Menjou).  With Gail Patrick, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Constance Collier, and Ann Miller.

The plot summary above doesn’t sound too scintillating and it sort of descends into predictable melodrama at the end.  The interplay of the catty female characters is simply priceless, however.  These ladies were firing on all cylinders and apparently having a marvelous time.  I had a big smile on my face for most of the running time.  Warmly recommended.

Stage Door was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Andrea Leeds), and Best Writing (Screenplay).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-adzytXoVY

Clip – Hepburn and Rogers – new roommate

 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Directed by David Hand et al
Written by Ted Sears et al based on a story collected by the Brothers Grimm
1936/USA
Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing

#110 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Doc: Why, the whole place is clean.

Grumpy: There’s dirty work afoot.[/box]

Disney spent an unheard of $1.8 million dollars on his first animated feature and every penny of it shows on the screen.

Everyone should know the fairy tale about the evil queen who tries to kill the beautiful little princess because she is the fairest in the land and how the princess escapes to live with some kindly dwarfs in the woods.

My affection for this film is unbounded.  This time I noticed all the little details – the faces in the furniture, for example.  One can see the overflowing creativity and joy with which this project was approached.  I also loved the cinematic thinking behind the film – all  those close-ups, tracking shots, and interesting angles.  It may just be my favorite of the Disney cartoons, though Fantasia is way up there.

Does Dopey remind anybody else of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman?

Clip – “Heigh-Ho”

Show Boat (1936)

Show Boat
Directed by James Whale
Written by Oscar Hammerstein II based on the novel by Edna Ferber
1936/USA
Universal Pictures

First viewing

[box] Joe: [singing] I gits weary / An’ sick o’ tryin’ / I’m tired o’ livin’ / An’ scared o’ dyin’ / But Ol’ Man River / He jes’ keeps rollin’ along![/box]

Oh, how I loved, loved, loved this screen adaptation of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein 1927 Broadway musical!

Captain Andy Hawks (Charles Winniger) runs a show boat on the Mississippi River.  His leading lady Julie (Helen Morgan) and leading man Steve are married.  A jealous boat hand reveals that Julie has negro blood and she and Steve leave the boat under charges of miscegenation.  Captain Andy’s daughter Magnolia (Irene Dunne) takes over for Julie.  Riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal needs to get out of town and hitches a ride on the show boat, taking over from Steve as leading man.  He and Magnolia fall in love and marry but things take a turn for the worse when Gay tries to support her with his gambling winnings.  With Paul Robeson as Joe and Hattie McDaniel as Queenie.

I love this film so much that I sat rapt through a 16-part YouTube viewing of the movie, the only means that was available to me.  The story gets pretty melodramatic by the end but the musical numbers are just perfect.  Three of them gave me chills:  Robeson’s rendition of “Ol’ Man River”; the ensemble “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”; and Helen Morgan’s “Bill”.

This was James Whale’s favorite of all his pictures and I think he was right.  It is certainly beautifully staged.  The casting is wonderful.  I like Irene Dunne better every time I see her. In fact the only thing I can find fault with was the decision to cut several of the stage show’s songs in favor of original numbers.   I could gush on and on.

It is criminal that there has never been a DVD of this film.  It is vastly superior to the 1951 version, which is readily available.

Clip – “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” (gives me the chills! — when Robeson joins in behind the women)

Our Relations (1936)

Our Relations
Directed by Harry Lachman
Written by Richard Connell, Felix Adler, et al
1936/USA
Hal Roach Studios/Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
First viewing

 

[box] Finn: [hands Ollie a bill] Here, have yourselves a fling. Ollie: A dollar? We can’t do much flinging on a dollar.[/box]

I found most of this uninspired until the very end when a sight gag involving Stan and Ollie bobbing around like roly-poly dolls with their feet in cement had me roaring  with laughter.

Stan and Ollie’s long-lost twin brothers Alf and Bertie are sailors.  Unbeknownst to our heroes they show up penniless in town and set in motion all kinds of nonsense involving mistaken identities and a valuable ringing belonging to the captain of the ship.  With Alan Hale as a beer-garden owner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K9eF1kFApA

Clip

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

The Charge of the Light Brigade
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh inspired by the poem by Tennyson
1936/USA
Warner Bros.

First viewing

 

[box] When can their glory fade?/ O the wild charge they made!/ All the world wonder’d./ Honor the charge they made!/ Honor the Light Brigade,/ Noble six hundred! — Alfred Lord Tennyson “The Charge of the Light Brigade”[/box]

The war film is not a favorite genre of mine, but there is no question that this is an expertly made film of some power.  I don’t know if I could have watched it, however, if I had known ahead of time about the number of horses killed in filming the Charge.

This movie does not make any pretense of historical accuracy.  The regiment, characters, and incidents are all fictional.  The only thing that actually happened was the Charge itself, though not for the reasons or with the results claimed.

It is India, 1856.  As the movie begins, officials are telling war lord Surat Kahn that the stipend the British had been paying his father will cease.  Kahn nevertheless continues to entertain the party with a tiger hunt during which Major Geoffrey Vickers (Eroll Flynn) saves Kahn’s life.  We learn that the Russians would be only to glad to fill the gap left by the British.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey is engaged to his Colonel’s daughter Elsa Campbell (Olivia de Havilland).  Unfortunately, Elsa has fallen in love with Geoffrey’s brother Perry (Patric Knowles) while Geoffrey was away on duty.  When Perry tells Geoffrey about their love, he refuses to believe it.  For one reason or another, Geoffrey is always dragged elsewhere just as Elsa tries to talk to him.

Kahn waits until most of the men at the British garrison are away at manuevers and strikes the hopelessly undermanned fortress.  He offers surrender terms which the British are forced to accept and then massacres all the survivors of the initial attack except Elsa who is saved by Geoffrey.  Later, Geoffrey’s regiment is sent to the Crimea because it is there that they will find Kahn and, with luck, exact vengeance.   With David Niven as an officer, Donald Crisp as Elsa’s father, and just about every middle-aged British character actor in Hollywood at the time.

I liked this quite a bit.  All the acting was excellent and Michael Curtiz kept the action rolling along at a good pace.  The story picks up a lot when the focus shifts away from the love triangle to the fighting.  Unfortunately, Warner Bros. resorted to very cruel measures to get realistic battle footage.

Dozens of horses were killed during the making of this picture due to the use of trip wires in the Charge sequence.  This led to action by Congress to ensure the safety of animals in filmaking and the ASPCA to ban trip wires in its guidelines. Because of the public outcry about the scene, the film was never re-released by Warner Brothers.

After I read about this, I kept thinking about how awful it was to take an animal who had been trained to trust and obey its rider knowingly into harm’s way.  So sad.

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

Trailer

 

Fury (1936)

Fury
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Bartlett Corbett and Fritz Lang based on a story by Norman Krasna
1936/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Repeat viewing

 

[box] Joe Wilson: I’ll give them a chance that they didn’t give me. They will get a legal trial in a legal courtroom. They will have a legal judge and a legal defense. They will get a legal sentence and a legal death.[/box]

Fritz Lang remained a very powerful director after he emigrated to the United States.  This, his first film after he left Germany, hits on all cylinders and addresses some of the same themes explored in M.

Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) is an ordinary decent working stiff who is saving up to marry his fiancée Katherine (Sylvia Spencer).  Katherine finds a better job in Washington State and the two part until they are more financially secure.  Joe cautions his younger brothers to respect the law and ends up opening a gas station with them.

After a year of separation, Joe happily sets off to Washington in his car to marry Katherine. On the way, he is stopped by a deputy sheriff (Walter Brennan) on the lookout for a gang of child kidnappers.  He is taken into the small town’s sheriff’s station where he is found to have peanuts in his pockets (peanut debris was found in the kidnappers’ abandoned car) and a five dollar bill that matches the serial number of the ransom money.  The sheriff holds Joe in jail while he investigates further.  In the meantime, the rumor mill manufactures a case against him that whips locals into an angry mob.

Fritz Lang delivered with a dark and cynical film that once again explores mob violence, this time from the perspective of an innocent man.  Fury also warns Americans how easily the Constitution and system of justice can be ignored or perverted when faced by the raw emotion of the crowd.  In fact, law enforcement and the courts are shown to be weak safeguards.  At one point, a character remarks that  foreigners are more familiar with the Constitution than native-born Americans because immigrants must study it to become citizens.

I just love the way the film builds from the initial romance to a gradual game of “telephone” like rumor mongering to explosive action and then to cold vengeance.  All these aspects are captured with Lang’s expressionist eye.  I think this is one of Spencer Tracy’s greatest performances and the rest of the cast does a good job.  The score by Franz Waxman helps to heighten the drama.  Highly recommended.

I cannot understand why  Fury is not currently available on DVD — I watched it on Amazon’s streaming service.

Trailer

 

The General Died at Dawn (1936)

The General Died at Dawn 
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Written by Clifford Odets based on a story by Charles G. Booth
1936/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing

 

[box] O’Hara: I like people too much to shoot. But it’s a dark year and a hard night.[/box]

This film has beautiful cinematography and art direction but takes itself a bit too seriously.

O’Hara (Gary Cooper) is an idealistic American who is working for the oppressed by helping the opposition to cruel warlord General Yang (Akim Tameroff).  His mission is to deliver a large sum of money to Shanghai where it will be used to buy arms for the rebels. He is warned to travel by plane only and to exercise extreme caution.  General Yang’s men employ Peter Perrie (Porter Hall) to help them part O’Hara from the money and to take it to Shanghai to rearm General Yang’s forces..

Perrie, who is ill and dreams of escaping China, enlists his very reluctant daughter Judy (Madeleine Carroll) to lure O’Hara onto the train.  Yang intercepts O’Hara on the train and gives the money to Perrie.  But Perrie has no intention of using it to buy arms …

I was really looking forward to this film as I have enjoyed the other Gary Cooper Paramount pictures from the 30’s.  Cooper was fine as was most of the rest of the cast.  The problem was with the screenplay which was full of little speeches about the rights of man.  This significantly slowed the pace of the action.  Also, the character actor Porter Hall has a much bigger than usual role here and used the opportunity to overdo things.  It’s worth a look but could have been so much better.

Fan trailer

 

The Devil-Doll (1936)

The Devil-Doll
Directed by Tod Browning
Written by Garrett Fort, Guy Endore, and Erich von Stroheim from a story by Tod Browning based on the novel Burn Witch Burn by Abraham Merritt
1936/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

First viewing

 

[box] Malita: We’ll make the whole WORLD small![/box]

MGM really didn’t understand the horror genre.

Lavond (Lionel Barrymore) and Marcel (Henry B. Walthall) escape from Devil’s Island, where Lavond has spent 17 years unjustly confined.  They go to Marcel’s house where his crazed wife Malita is continuing Marcel’s “humanitarian” experiments to shrink animals and humans to 1/6 their normal size.  Marcel asks Lavond to help the couple with their work but he refuses.  Lavond’s only remaining mission in life is to exact vengeance on the three fellow bankers that framed him for embezzlement and to lift the cloud of shame on his daughter (Maureen O’Sullivan).  But when Marcel suddenly dies, Lavond and Malita go off to Paris where they open a doll shop.  Lavond disguises himself as kindly old dollmaker “Mme. Mandilip”  and uses his miniaturized people, which move only at telepathic commands, in his revenge plot.

The premise of this movie had potential but failed to be creepy or scary. I got the feeling that MGM just couldn’t have Barrymore be a really bad guy. As it is, he is very much more Doctor Gillespie than Mr. Potter.  He seems completely sane and his revenge plans fully justified.  It is fun to see Barrymore as a woman, however. The special effects for the little people and animals are kind of clunky as well.  The film has a nice score by Franz Waxman.

Trailer