Pygmalion, 1938, (Grade B-)

Director Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith
Awards, Numberous Academy Awards in 1939
Cast:  Wendy Hiller; Leslie Howard; Wilifrid Lawson

sez says: the screenplay is by George Bernard Shaw--and it shows, esp toward the end, when Doolittle and Higgins unite.  Shaw's abhorrence of 'middle class morals' holds sway.  We don't very often see adults come together as housemates without marriage as is implied will happen here.  We all know this story.  It is faithfully portrayed -- and the acting is 1st rate. (It is not, like My Fair Lady, the musical, which is the same story with a lot more glitter and with much less of Shaw's philosophical footing).  I found the depiction of the working class to be especially interesting, their morals are not depicted as being better than the middle classes' - -but they are rational in their own right.  And Howard plays Higgins to a tee--a self involved bohemian who is unable to see himself as others see him. He is rude and abrupt and lacks concern about the feelings of others--while he sees himself as caring and needlessly polite.  Fun stuff..but not necessarily a great movie.

 

Jezebel, 1938 (Grade B-)

Director William Wyler 

Awards?:  Yes, Best Actress, plus Best Supporting Actress Academy Awards, plus other nominations. Also on AFI Top 100 Films 

CAST: Bette Davis; Henry Fonda; George Brent; Spring Byington; Fay Bainter; Jack Norton; Donald Crisp; Richard Cromwell; Margaret Lindsey; John Litel; Irving Pichel; Henry O'Neill. Georgia Caine

sez says: I am not sure how we missed this one before-It is a powerful study of selfishness and pride destroying a woman's life. Davis plays a beautiful, wealthy, headstrong young southern woman (early 19th century--pre civil war setting) who goes against social convention, to annoy her fiance who has annoyed her (she wears a red dress to the ball--instead of a white dress as all young unmarried women are suppose to).  She thereby loses the man she love (Fonda) --and spends a year in hopeful morning that he will retunr to her. When he does we find he has married another.   What won't she do to get him back?

This has plenty of grist for any feminist to tear into--about the ways a woman's life is depicted. About the fantasy of romantic love. About stupid competitions between women.  The racism in the story is also worthy of discussion -- Fonda does ask the butler to have a drink with him --but the happy black children singing and dancing are hard to take. But it is precisely becasue it give so much opportunity to talk about t tthat it makes it an especially worthwhile movie.  I am glad I saw it--eve though much of the story is really appalling --And it is well made, well acted, etc. 

Boys Town, 1938 (Grade D)

Director: Norman Taurog
Awards: Tracy Won Academy Award for Best Actor --nominated in other categories but didn't win
Cast: Spencer Tracy; Micky Rooney; Henry Hull; Leslie Fenton; Gene Reynolds; Edward Norris; Addison Richards; Minor Watson; Jonathan Hale; Bobs Watson.

sez says:  oh my this is sappy -- It was like one long fund raising campaign to support Boys Town. That is tiresome.  On the other hand I bet it was a very progressive movie at the time: "There is no such thing as a bad boy". That homeless kids were thrown into reform schools is appalling.  And Spencer Tracy does his bit very well. Micky Rooney is over the top --but he is a good at going over the top.  Still--unless you are a die-hard of some sort (needing to see all of Tracy's movies, or all the best actor movies, etc.) I can't recommend it to anyone. I felt like I wasted an evening watching it --but then I am a die-hard sort and have determined to accept some wasted time in order to discover forgotten greats .. my grade for this on is D-

Grand Illusion, 1937 (Grade A+)

DIRECTOR: Jean Renoir
Awards, Nominated for an academy award for best picture.
Cast: Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Pierre Fresnay, Eric Von Stroheim, Dita Parlo

sez says: an A+ -- WWI -- provides a setting to display the things that binding us together and the things that divide us and how we allow ourselves to be divided against our selves.  Nationalism, class affiliation, religion, love, loyalty, pride, creativity are all pieces of the puzzle.  But what is important are the alignments that are created --and destroyed-- by these aspects of humanity. And this story winds its way around these issues, saying in the sub text:. War is beyond stupid and terrifying. It is nonsense.  Nationalism is not healthy (just lines on a map) -- but it is a powerful engine of emotion.  Mistreatment of Jews is absurd. (remember what Hitler was doing in 1937 when this was made). The Aristocracy is in decline--and with that something about honor is being lost. And more.  There is so much in this movie it is hard to know where to begin. I could write a book--or two--about this story and they way it is told--and I bet there are plenty of books already written.  If you haven't see this, do. (Grade A+)

 

Alexander's Rag Time Band, 1938 ( Grade C-)

Director: Henry King

Awards: Yes nominated for a number of academy awards--won best Music Score

Cast: Tyrone Power; Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, John Carradine. Ruth Terry. Douglas Fowley, Chick Chandler, Joseph Crehan, Robert Gleckler, Stanley Andrews, Donald Douglas, Lon Chaney Jr., Edwin Stanley

sez says -- Ethel Merman sure was some singer!  Next to Merman poor Alice Faye is a wash-out. But, evidently, Fay was considered to be 'more beautiful' so she got the lead role. That makes the whole movie sit sort of uncomfortably-crocked.
Anyway-- this is packed with Irving Berlin Music, so for people who like Berlin that is a plus.  It is set in San Francisco, World War I and New York. So that is the backdrop.  But that is it. There is no story to speak of. Two people love each other but they keep having trouble getting together --till the end-- and when they do get together that ends the movie.  In the meantime you get to hear a dozen or more Berlin tunes--which are best done by Merman....and you get to see some cool dancing by Jack Haley.  You've  got to like Berlin to want to see this--if you like Berlin, it is light entertainment.  Grade C -

Lost Horizon, 1937 (Grade B+)

Director: Frank Capra

Awards?  Yes -- some academy awards and lost of nominations; plus is on an AFI Top 100 list

Cast:: Ronald Coleman; Jane Wyatt; John Howard; Margo; Thomas Mitchell; Edward Everett Horton; Isabel Jewe;;; H.B. Warner; Sam Jaffe

A Standard Plot Description Says: "In Frank Capra's classic based on the James Hilton novel, plane-crash survivors are led through the Himalayas to Shangri-La, a village without hate or crime and where no one ages. Robert Conway (Ronald Coleman) is chosen to succeed Shangri-La's High Lama and falls for Sondra (Jane Wyatt), but his brother convinces him to leave on an ill-fated trek. When Conway ends up in England with amnesia, will he manage to go back and fulfill his destiny?"

sez says:--I say this movie as a child on TV and never forgot it--it has a magical sense about it that is a perfect fit for films of the 1930s. I say it again in the 1970's--at which time I realized that this "utopia" is based on slave labor (happy dark skin people who don't have plumbing yet while the white folks live in a castle.) And the the way you keep men from fighting with each other over women is that if a man want's another man's wife, all he has to do is ask for her, and the original husband will give her to the man who has asked (nobody has to ask her!) --so, the women in the castle, while they are not quite slaves, they are the property of men to be handed around at the whim of those men.  So this is a utopia for whom? 

Now I watched it again--and the latest version to be released is a remake of the original. It is really fascinating. Evidently a lot of different, cut versions have been released over time. Film scholars undertook the job of putting the original back together.  They could not find film footage for the entire move--but they had the full audio  SO they have inserted stills into the film to look at  when there is audio that lacks the original visual footage. The story is broadened..and the philosophy of what might have been considered utopia is also opened up. The problems I had with the story in when I saw it in the 1970s are all still there--and they are even magnified.  But the bases of this society would make a wonderful topic of study about what do people imagine they want, and how they perceive the world as it actually exists.

Plus, no matter how much I chafe at the racism and sexism and classism of the story it is still a wonderfully compelling film, well made and  not to be missed. Thre is good reason it is considered a classic.  (Grade B+)

Stage Door, 1937 (Grade B-)

Director: Gregory LaCava
Awards?  nominated for numerous Academy Awards but I don't know if it won any
Cast Katherine Hepburn; Ginger Rogers; Lucille Ball; Eve Arden; Adolphe Menjou; Ann Miller; Gail Patrick; Constance Collier; Andrea Leeds; Samuel S Hinds

sez says --this was written by Edna Ferber and George S Kaufman and it has a better than average, snappy-talk, script.  Young women want to go on stage. They live in a boarding house together and form a family--ie the group squabbles and takes care of each other. Hepburn, a rich girl slumming, moves in, and against her father's wishes she aims to be an actor.  The rich father wants his daughter to fail so she will give up the stage and come home. He secretly funds a play for her to star in .... meanwhile the hardworking and talented young women in the boarding house are exposed to all sorts of indignities--which they suffer lightly because of their wit and banter.  What story of happens re: Hepburn's opportunity is woven into and around the lives of the women at the boarding house. And I'll not say more so as not to spoil the story. But while Hepburn's situation plays out  the story explores the problems the women in the boarding house face. First and foremost is malnutrition. But a close second is men who want to take advantage of them--and those men, who don't believe they should even be trying to make a life for themselves, lie and connive and offer to make them STARS, etc. The story is ok--and the acting is fun. The best thing about this is is is about a society of women.  Men are not seen as heroes, nor are they seen in particularly positive light. They are a backward looking option for these women--to get married and have a family is not anyone's obvious goal.  (Grade B-)