Stagecoach, 1939 (Grade B)

Director: John Ford
Awards"?  -- yes, nominated for many and won some Academy Awards -- nominated for one of the Top 100 films by AFI
Cast:  John Wayne; Claire Trevor; Andy Devine; John Carradine; Thomas Mitchell; Louis Platt; George Bancroft; Donald Meek;  Berton Churchill; Tim Holt; Tom Tyler.

sez says: some say that this is an acknowledged masterpiece and  you're just putting yourself up for jeers if you don't fall into lock step agreement.  Well I hate that. I think we hae to keep going back and looking again and again at these sanctified icons. So we looked at this once more.  Things that are great about the movie are: 1) MONUMENT VALLEY (thank you John Ford for making movies there) 2) a view of what America is suppose to be circa 1939 (the end of the depression) 3) some amazing stunts on horseback.
This little microcosm of America riding across the west in a stage coach is a pretty liberal party when they are at there best: Forgive the prostitute; Understand the escaped prisoner and let him escape; Acknowledge what was honorable about the old south --ie your old enemy; Acknowledge Christina Ideals --the saleman; Forgive individual shortcomings The Doctor--because a good American will do the right thing when called upon.   When it comes to the bad guys:  1) the banker, 2) the Plumber Brothers, and 3) the Apache you kill them (no trials) or you lock them up.   It is an interesting movie in part just because it is so famous. .. but then how many people have really watched it.

Rules of the Game, 1939 (Grade B)

Director: Jean Renoir
Awards: well regarded by many but I can't find any awards mentioned
 Cast: Nora Gregor; Paulette Dubost: Mila Parely; Odette Talazac; Claire Gerard; Anne Mayen; Lise Elina; Marcel Dalio; Julien Carette; Roland Toutain; Gaston Modot; Jean Renoir; Pierre Magnier; Eddy Debray; Pierre Nay; Richard Francoeur.

 

sez says: this French film was directed by the master Jean Renoir, which makes it wonderful to watch no matter the content.  The opening scene is a gem all by its self:  a woman radio broadcaster, with a giant microphone, struggles through a crowd to get to the French-pilot of a Trans Atlantic Flight who supposedly just beat Charles Lindburgh's record. When she finally gets to him he tells her, and the nation, that the flight was a waster and he is miserable because the women he loves is not there to greet him.  Cut to that woman's bedroom, she is wealthy and married to another man. That man has been cheating on her--but now decides he should give up his mistress.  The mistress is angry.  And off these folks go to a country home (along with many others) for a wild, wild party.  People are jumping in and out of bed with various partners, fidelity is not a respected by many people at all.  In one scene two men are talking--and the point of the movie is made -- He says something akin to "you can not trust anyone any more, not the businesses, not the government, not your best friend...etc.."

All has turned into a farce--a comedy--a joke. In the story--and no doubt as a comment on the social order at this moment before WW2 too over Europe.  The only men who has stayed TRUE AND HONEST  (our transatlantic pilot) and who had professed his love and stayed true (he had even shown hims self to be honorable when he wouldn't run off with the woman he loves without talking to her husband first) is shot and killed. These days right before the outbreak of WW2 must have looked

You probably have to be "a film person" to really find all of this wonderful -- I am glad I saw it--but I am not sure I'd put it on a recommended list for everybody. (Grade B)

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-)