The Good Earth, 1937 (Grade C+)

Director: Sidney Franklin, Victor Fleming, Gustav Machatv
Awards?  Yes-- Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Cinematography --plus other nominations
Cast: Paul Muni; Luis Rainer; Walter Connolly; Tilly Losch; Charley Grapewin; Jessie Ralph; Soo Yong; Keye Luke; Roland Lui; Suzanna Kim

sez says: surprisingly well done for its time--and for the topic at the time it was done. An epic of a farmer who suffers but eventually grows wealth and is lured away from the land by the finery available to the rich.  He finds his way back to what really maters in the end-- his land, his wife, his sons, his community. It is a long film--and it does drag in a few places, but it is an epic--and it needs the time to tell the tale. It is a little awkward to see Anglos made-up as Asians -- sort of like white folks in black-face.  But it was 1937--and that the story was made into a movie featuring Chinese people was probably a step forward.  I enjoyed seeing this --but I wouldn't put it on my 'to see again' list. Grade C+

 

The Awful Truth, 1937 (Grade C+)

Director Leo McCarey
Awards AFI & Time Magazine Top 100 lists, nominated for various and won one (Best Director) Academy
Cast: Cary Grant; Irene Dunne; Ralph Bellamy' Alexander D'Arch; Cecil Cunningham; Molly Lamont; Ester Dale; Joyce Compton; Robert Warwick; Mary Forbes



sez says; fun is to be had here--but not as much fun as I expected given the "this is such a great film" comments I've seen in my life --yes Grant and Dunn have chemistry --they play a couple who divorce but who really belong together.  We've seen this before: He HAS been dishonest, she hasn't but been but isn't believed when she finds herself in a suggestive situation.  There is some singing and dancing.  There are situational mishaps and misunderstandings. Maybe funniest sequence is when Dunn, pretending to be Grant's working class sister, crashes a party where Grant is being entertained by his new high-society sweetheart's family.    

If you like old movies--you will enjoy this, But the story has been done, in various versions and  lots of times -- maybe not better -- but then it isn't much of a story, even if the moral is still valid. You can't have a good relationship/marriage if you don't trust each other. On another day I might give it a higher grade, but right now if feels real C+ to me

 

The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938 (Grade C)

Director: Michael Curtiz and William Keighley
Awards --multiple Adademy Awards --top 100 in AFI Thrills Category
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Haviland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patic Knowles, Alan Hale, Eugene Pallette, Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter, Una O'Connor.

sez says: I was amazed how many  images that there are in this film that I remember from my childhood.  How many times could I have seen it?  But I know when I saw it way back when it was on an old B&W TV -- and this movie is a TECHNOCOLOR--with all caps COLOR-production.  They put color --as vividly as possible--everywhere they could. Including I might ask on the bad King John's vest--which seemed to have been lite with flashing colored lights! No kidding, I think they had his clothing wired up to flash!  Take a look and see what you think.
The story is too familiar to go into -- but somethings of note are: the costumes deserve an award for the most bizarre wear imaginable for living in the forest.  The sets were stupendous oversize amazement.  You could list some of the forest's trees as cast members, they were so impressive.  Olivia de Haviland was a striking beauty. And Errol Flynn really is fun to watch leaping about. And the sword fighting scenes deserve to be called classics.    Even so--classic that it is--it is also all too familiar to get a grade better than C --it is not a great film--but it is a fun film for those of us who had these images pressed into our memories at an early age.

A Tale of Two Cities, 1935 (Grade C)

Director: Jack Conway
Awards: Nominated for Academy Awards
Starring: Ronald Coleman; Elizabeth Allan; Edna May Oliver; Reginald Owen; Basil Rathbone; Blanche Yurka; Donald Wood; H B Warner; Mitchell Lewis; Tully Marshall; EE Clive; Robert Warwick; John Davidson

sez says: this is how Hollywood cuts the classics down to size.  They strip out everything but the romance and let go of what makes this a brilliant novel. But then--part of the brilliance is in the romance--and here it is in an easy to consume, whitewashed version.  Coleman and Allan are a bit too "acty" for my taste--I mean overblown, stagey--swoonishly inclined. Or maybe it is just the way the story is told. Plus, I don't remember the actual book placing so much emphasis on Christianity and Resurrection --even the musical background they were often using hymns and Christmas carol tunes .  But even with all of that I still enjoy these old movies --and the bit actors are great --as are the sets and costumes (overdone--but still fun) (Grade C)

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.