Three Smart Girls, 1936 ( Grade C-)

Director Henry Koster
Awards?  -- nominated for best picture at Academy Awards
cast:  Deanna Durbin; Binnie Barnes; Ray Milland Alice Brady; Charles Winniger

sez says -- Durbin is INTRODUCED in this film and she is a talented young woman of 14 -- I don't care at all for the style or stuff she sings -- but her comedic timing is right on. This is a story of 3 sisters who try to stop their father from marrying a new woman (evil money hunter--with an even more evil mother egging her on) so their parents can be reunited. It has some story twists that might not be expected.but it all ends up exactly as you imagine it will. It contains mistaken identity,  singing where they it can be fit in, good butlers and helpful cops: an entirely absurd story that is typical stuff for the 1930s (Grade C-)

In Old Chicago, 1937 (Grade D-)

Director: Henry King
Awards --won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for many more Academy Awards but didn't win
Staring: Tyrone Power; Alice Faye; Don Ameche; Alice Brady; Andy Devine; Brian Donlevy; Phyllis Brooks; Tom Brown; Sidney Blackmer; Benton Churchill; June Storey; Paul Hurst

sez says-- this movie is famous for being the most expensive film made up to this point in history. By the standards of the 1930s it has an amazing presentation of the Chicago Fire. That seems to be where the money was spent..but that alone is not much to recommend it -- and it has little else. The story is dull--to stupid and the ideology is retrograde. So much so that you can't ignore it.  For instance:  
It suggests a man literally should just take the woman he wants and overpower her physically (while she fights him and calls for help) but that is what she wants and she ends-up in a passionate embrace, kissing him.  So when the police arrive to help her they are not needed. Humm--not so good. We all know that, that has proven to be an excuse for rape (she really wanted it, etc) --so you have to cringe through that sort of thing (this happens more than once in this movie, I might add).  Plus there are songs about 'happy darkies'  and their love for the 'ole massa'.  Add to this the need to destroy 'The Patch' (ie the part of town where the poor live) because that is where all the evil comes from --ie the poor are to blame for their own poverty.   Or how about, the manipulation of politics --and the stealing of votes is ok, just so you have good intentions.  This movie is full of this kind of tripe. (grade D-) --not an F only becasue the fire scenes are rather interesting from the perspective of the history of film making.

Les Miserables, 1934 (Grade B+)

Director: Raymond Bernard
FRENCH CLASSIC -- 5 hours / B&W
Starring:  Harry Baur; Charles Vanel; Paul Azais; Max Dearly; Charles Dullin; Emile Genevois; Harry Krauss; George Mauloy; Lucien Nat; Jean Servais; Robert Vidalin; Orane Demazis; Florelle; Josseline Gael; Margueite Moreno

sez says --this is the best version of Le Miserables that we have found so far. It is long--but it doesn't wear on you.  It is well acted--and exquisitely filmed.  Really impressive --from a film-making perspective, most impressive are the fight and battle scenes that take place in the last 1/3 of the story. And the escape through the sewer is amazingly realistic.  Baur is a perfect Jean Valjean.