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TM2YC's 1001 Movies (Chronological up to page 25/post 481)

bionicbob

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@"TM2YC" ...[font=Raleway, sans-serif]and the star of Pt2 is the steely-eyed [/font][font=Raleway, sans-serif]Glenn Morris[/font][font=Raleway, sans-serif] (also from the US team). I found myself really cheering him on as he competes in the grueling Decathlon. He went on to take the lead role in [/font][font=Raleway, sans-serif]1938's 'Tarzan's Revenge'[/font][font=Raleway, sans-serif]... so maybe Tarzan-fan [/font][font=Raleway, sans-serif]bionicbob[/font][font=Raleway, sans-serif] is familiar with him?[/font]

My knowledge of Glenn Morris is limited.  I knew he was former Olympic athlete but not the specifics of his achievements.  In his one outing as Tarzan, he was unremarkable.  Produced by Sol Lester, Tarzan's Revenge was different in tone from the competing MGM flicks, with greater emphasis on comedy and kid/family friendliness.  It is a style Lester would perfect when he took control of the Tarzan franchise when it moved to RKO with Weissmuller.
 

bionicbob

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TM2YC said:
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Director: Michael Curtiz & William Keighley
Country: United States
Length: 102 minutes
Type: Adventure, Romance

To be honest, I'm not sure what parts of the Robin Hood myth were original, or invented for this first hit talkie adventure but this has all the scenes you'd expect. The fight with Little John, the Archery competition (and the splitting of the arrow), the rescue from the hangman, the unveiling of King Richard, the badinage with Maid Marian and lots of swashbuckling up and down stairwells. I've watched 1938's 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' quite a few times and it sits alongside 1991's 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' and Disney's animated version in my perfect Robin Hood trifecta.

Agreed!  Flynn's Robin Hood I can watch endlessly.   He is up there with Guy William's Zorro as one of the most perfectly casted swashbuckling heroes ever!

Though for me, the DEFINITIVE version of Robin Hood has to be the 1984-86 series Robin of Sherwood.  

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K2OAC5ISPI[/video]
 

TM2YC

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bionicbob said:
for me, the DEFINITIVE version of Robin Hood has to be the 1984-86 series Robin of Sherwood.  

I loved that too back in the day. I'm always waiting to find the blu-ray boxsets for a reasonable price and rewatch the series (or wait for it to come to Netflix).




79 years ago...

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The Baker's Wife (1938)
Director: Marcel Pagnol
Country: France
Length: 133 minutes
Type: Comedy

'The Baker's Wife' ('La Femme du Boulanger') looks to be out-of-print on Amazon-UK and not widely available even when it was. A youtube upload looks terrible with English subtitles that are inaccurate and incomplete. So I decided to gamble and order an expensive blu-ray I found on Amazon-France which claimed to have English Subtitles. It paid off because the 4K-scan on the disc is absolutely stunning quality (I don't think I've seen a 30s film look better), the subtitles were excellent and I enjoyed the film enormously.



^ This isn't a production photo, it's a frame from the blu-ray! :)

The story concerns a small French country town and it's eccentric residents. The new baker's wife runs off with a handsome shepherd and he is left so distraught that he can't bake anymore. The townsfolk rally round to get the wife back, make their baker happy again and get some decent bread at last. You could re-shoot the script today and not change a thing because the dialogue is frank, modern, bawdy and full of wit. I look forward to watching 'The Baker's Wife' again and seeing other films starring the superb Raimu. The blu-ray was worth every Euro.


The first Howard Hawks film in the book next.
 

TM2YC

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80 years ago...

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Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Director: Howard Hawks
Country: United States
Length: 102 minutes
Type: Comedy

I can't believe I'd so far managed to avoid seeing or even knowing much about this celebrated Comedy until now. Katharine Hepburn is on fire as a self-assured and care-free heiress who blusters through life, confident that if she says something is so, it will be (or the world will simply remake itself for her). A hapless and closeted Paleontologist (Cary Grant) encounters her by chance, gets drawn into her chaotic and inescapable orbit and 102 minutes of farcical Comedy-gold ensue.

The film is also a Romance but mostly a one sided affair, interestingly it does not end with Grant and Hepburn declaring their love for each other, it ends with him just giving in to her with a sort of jovial sigh. All this is cleverly reflected in the subtext. Grant being a hen-pecked Paleontologist who has lost his "bone" being rather suggestive. The scenes of hunting and leopards mirror Hepburn as the hunter and Grant as her prey. A scene where Hepburn hilariously forces Grant to dress in a fluffy ladies nightgown could be seen as her emasculating him. When somebody asks Grant why he has dressed this way, he exasperatedly shouts out "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!" and there is apparently some doubt about among film scholars as to which sense of the word is meant. This is one I shall be re-watching many times I'm sure.


Next up is a proper John Wayne/John Ford Western.
 

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79 years ago...

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Stagecoach (1939)
Director: John Ford
Country: United States
Length: 96 minutes
Type: Western

'Stagecoach' isn't the first Western but it is the first of many in the book and it's already the genre fully formed.  A diverse group of strangers are thrown together in a few tight spots (including a stagecoach) and we find out the truths and lies about their beautifully drawn personalities through conflict. I'm sure Tarantino had this film on his mind when he made the recent 'The Hateful Eight'. The chase across the salt flat is as thrilling as a chase ever was. A young looking John Wayne (I thought he was born old!) plays the main character in an ensemble cast, including rough/tough George Bancroft and the hilarious Andy Devine. They are all out-shined by Thomas Mitchell (who won an Oscar) as a shambolically drunk Doctor, managing to still show him as an ultimately brave and kind man. One of the golden rules of watching movies should be to watch anything with Thomas Mitchell in it.


Next up is the first film from Japan in the book.
 

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78 years ago...

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The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Country: Japan
Length: 142 minutes
Type: Drama

'The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums' ('Zangiku Monogatari') is the first film from Japan in the book (and probably the earliest I've ever seen), so it's difficult to gauge where this film sits in the technical progression of Japanese Cinema. I don't think there is a single close-up in the whole thing, much like the earliest silent-films, which often makes understanding the character's emotions difficult (even in HD). However, the extensive use of long tracking-shots and meticulous lighting and framing display a high level of technical skill. So I can only conclude that keeping everything in medium and long shots was an artistic choice. When all the characters wear kimonos, have similar haircuts and I'm unfamiliar with any of the actors, never getting a good luck at their faces sometimes became confusing as to who was the brother/cousin/sister/daughter/uncle of who.

The plot follows a young and initially talentless Kabuki actor and his difficult journey towards greatness, which is the other problem. While I have a fair understanding of the social strata of period Japan relating to Bushi, Daimyo, Ronin, Metsukes, the Shogun etc from several books and films, I knew almost nothing of Classical Japanese theatre. From the film, I think they were treated like modern Rock-Stars but of noble lineage. That the young actor was very bad and then is later very good, was just something I had to take on trust because it all looked like ritualised melodrama to me. I think you'd have to be more familiar with the genre to get the most out of this movie but I didn't dislike it overall.


Next is another Busby Berkeley extravaganza.
 

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78 years ago...

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Babes in Arms (1939)
Director: Busby Berkeley
Country: United States
Length: 93 minutes
Type: Musical

'Babes in Arms' is another step towards the full-flavour Musicals we are used to now. Characters have a couple of numbers where they burst into song for no other reason than to express their feelings but mostly it's still just random songs that get sung because they are being rehearsed or performed. You don't have to have the film be about musical performers to have a musical guys, they almost get it :D.

The plot is about the kids of a washed-up Vaudeville troupe putting on a show. There is a half-hearted subplot about the town prude trying to reform these kids but they are presented as way too straight-laced and square for this to work fully. They needed to be portrayed as free-spirited bohemians, too wild for the well to do set but decent and kind all the same (a bit like a 30s 'Captain Fantastic', or even 'The Goonies'). Knitted tank-tops, sharply pressed slacks and tweed jackets = youthful rebellion!

I don't think I've ever seen a young Mickey Rooney film before, so he blew me away here, such energy and charisma. Things are going pretty well until the third-act when suddenly everybody including Rooney and Judy Garland decide to black-up and sing a song about how great it is to sing Minstrel songs :dodgy: . Also the numerous joke references to Clark Gable started off as funny but the shear number began to seem like naked cross-promotion of their fellow MGM star. The end recovers with an interesting and rousing musical extravaganza celebrating what it is to be an American, with (then) topical references to the rising dictatorships in Europe.

Annoyingly the film's DVD seems to be out-of-print and very expensive, so I had to rent it on Amazon Digital... and I hate renting digital content :mad: .


Next up is another Frank Capra classic.
 

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78 years ago...

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Director: Frank Capra
Country: United States
Length: 130 minutes
Type: Political, Drama

I love Frank Capra films and I love Jimmy Stewart films but somehow I never got round to viewing this 11-time Oscar Nominated picture. One man who passionately believes in the ideals on which the US Government was founded, is confronted by the realities of Washington when he is appointed to the Senate. Stewart is perfect casting as the noble and naive young Senator. Claude Rains is totally superb, essentially playing the antagonist but with such depth you can't help but feel for him. Jean Arthur is also perfectly suited to the role of a cynical Senate Secretary, who just might have a spark of hope left. 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is defiantly a film about dignity, truth, hope and justice but it's also a film about corruption, lies and despair. Seeing the characters torn between the two extremes is where the drama lies. Smith's heroic third-act filibuster is manor-from-heaven for Political-Junkies like me.


Even for 1939, I found it odd that no mention is made of the absurdity of Arthur's character being the Political brains of story but being a woman, has no actual voice in this male-dominated world. It's something a modern remake would have to address. However, in a welcome turn for a 30s Hollywood film, there are at least a few shots of African-Americans being shown positively and equally. Like is in this powerful scene where old/young/black/white gaze up at the Lincoln Memorial with tears in their eyes:


Next, we are off to see the Wizard!
 

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...or more likely...

 

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78 years ago...

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The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Director: Victor Fleming (King Vidor, George Cukor & Norman Taurog)
Country: United States
Length: 101 minutes
Type: Musical, Fantasy

The Technicolor visuals in 'The Wizard of Oz' still look spectacular but they must have been f**kin' mind-blowing in 1939. Many songs and sequences are burned on the pop-culture consciousness, so even though this was only the second/third time I've watched it, this felt like the thousandth time I've seen some parts. Like Shakespeare, some of the dialogue has become shorthand we use in everyday language ("The man behind the curtain", "We're not in Kansas anymore", "There’s no place like home" etc). The visual transition from sepia to full colour as Dorothy enters Oz is an impressively simple in-camera trick but still feels jaw-droppingly magical. This time I was appreciating how good the sound design was during that scene (clip below). The storm and music get louder and louder, then suddenly deafening silence and the sound/music comes back as we enter Oz. A sound technique that has now become a standard filmmaking tool.


When the characters stay too long in one location (The Munchkin village and The Emerald City) the limitations of the sets become very obvious. Both sequences featuring ill-advised horse-cart rides across sets that are barely large enough to fit the horse. Thankfully for the most part this is a yellow-brick-road-trip, so changing sets, different characters, varied set-based locations and gorgeous matte-paintings help keep the world feeling big and alive. The opening and closing acts are perhaps a whisker too slow but the middle is non-stop fun. Lastly, this is the first full-on Musical in the book, all the songs exist outside of the internal logic of the story (no band rehearsals, no Broadway auditions), they are all there purely for characters to express emotion and to further the plot.

(By the way. You should watch it synced with 'Dark Side of The Moon' at least once :cool: )


Another Western next.
 

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78 years ago...

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Destry Rides Again (1939)
Director: George Marshall
Country: United States
Length: 95 minutes
Type: Western

'Destry Rides Again' features almost pre-code levels of sex, violence, gambling and drunkenness (still tame compared to 30s movies from outside the US) but I suppose if it's just the bad guys doing it all and your hero is a virtuous pacifist, then it can be allowed. Jimmy Stewart is perfectly cast as a seemingly oddball new Sheriff (Destry) who is determined to clean up a hell-hole western town by being reasonable, honest, amiable and not carrying a gun. A narrative flaw emerges when the film can't resist showing us that Destry is a crack shot, in order to definitively demonstrate that he goes unarmed as a choice and not because of cowardice. This means that when two people he cares for get shot in the back you can't help but think he could have prevented their deaths very easily. However, that thought didn't trouble me too much because I was having so much fun watching him sparring with Marlene Dietrich's crooked saloon singer character.


Another film with Thomas Mitchell in next. Is he in every good late 30s film?
 

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78 years ago...

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Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Director: Howard Hawks
Country: United States
Length: 121 minutes
Type: Drama

A story about a South-American firm of air-mail pilots with a death-wish. The sort of guys you expect to see rescuing Indiana Jones from an irate tribe. 'Only Angels Have Wings' is a fine film but I felt Cary Grant was slightly miscast as a desperado pilot. It's the kind of role you'd expect Humphrey Bogart to play, not the charming Manhattan socialite Grant is more suited for. Luckily the supporting cast are excellent, including Thomas Mitchell, who once again steals the show as an aging pilot with failing eyesight. Your heart just breaks for him. One of the pilots is played by John Carroll (who I know from the Marx Brothers) and he would have been much better in the lead. Just enough charm and good looks but with a streak of roguishness. He's not the only Marx link, the firm is owned by Sig Ruman. I've never seen him as anything other than pompous Marx Bros. villains but he's equally great as a kindly old man.


4-hours in the Deep South next.
 

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78 years ago...

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Gone With the Wind (1939)
Director: Victor Fleming (George Cukor & Sam Wood)
Country: United States
Length: 238 minutes (4-hours)
Type: Drama, Romance

This was my second viewing of 'Gone With the Wind' and I liked it more this time. Although three famous Directors worked on it, the giant vision was that of Producer David O. Selznick. The tyrannical Selznick was reported to have gobbled Speed "like popcorn" to cope with mounting the most expensive, longest and highest-grossing (when adjusted for inflation) Hollywood  film ever made. I find some of the production stories more entertaining than the film. Like co-star Clark Gable threatening to walk from the picture unless the backstage facilities were desegregated. He was successful in that case but his threat to boycott the Atlanta Premiere when he learned the black cast members were not invited, was sadly ignored. Hattie McDaniel did win the first Oscar for a person of colour as the plantation matron "Mammy".


The racial dimensions of the film itself are still controversial. It's far from the hateful propaganda of something like 'Birth of a Nation' but it is still highly questionable. It paints slavery in the Deep-South plantations as a wonderful idyllic period of happiness for all. The only time we see anybody in chains or being maltreated is later in the picture, when it's a row of white convicts. It's the only time in the whole 4-hours when anybody even questions the morality of slavery but the film concludes it was fine because they were treated well. The very few "Yankee" characters are all shown as uncaring thieves, murderers and (probable) rapists. I can never understand why early Hollywood seemed hell-bent on fermenting another Civil War, mere decades after the last one.

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This is an oldskool 4-hour Epic, so it's got an Overture, Entr'acte, Exit-Music and an Intermission, which neatly breaks the story in half. Just before the fall of the Confederacy and just after. Main character Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) is introduced to us as a selfish, spiteful and petulant Southern debutante who wants anything as long as she can't have it. The lead being so unlikable is one of the factors that makes 'Gone With the Wind' hard to fully enjoy. After the Intermission Scarlett has lost everything and the grit and determination she shows clawing it all back at least gives us a spark of admiration for her, even if we still think she is a horrid person. One could almost see this as a feminist tale, out of the ashes of the fall, it's the women who rebuild the families. The men (with the exception of Rhett) have all become senile, depressed, war-wounded, or generally ineffectual. That said, there is a troubling part where it's implied Rhett intends to rape Scarlett and we cross-fade to her in bed the next morning beaming with satisfied joy.

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The Technicolor images are incredibly beautiful, including some long pull-back crane shots and painterly mattes. The colours are so rich, it's like they were painting with light. Max Steiner's lush romantic 'Tara's Theme' is rightly one of the most famous and beloved pieces of music in all of Cinema. Clark Gable is like a force of nature as the tempestuous Rhett Butler. The movie is problematic but everybody should see it at least once, if only to learn where quoteable lines like "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" and "...afterall, tomorrow is another day" come from. 'Gone With the Wind' really is a cinematic spectacle.


Another Jean Gabin film next. Fantastique!
 

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78 years ago...

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Daybreak (1939)
Director: Marcel Carné
Country: France
Length: 93 minutes
Type: Drama, Romance

One of my favourite movie sub-genres is "Stories told through flashback" and apparently 'Daybreak' ('Le Jour Se Lève') is one of the first to employ multiple slow dissolves into the past. A brief titlecard even precedes the film explaining this new technique for contemporary viewers, so they weren't confused. The film begins with Foundry worker François locked in his room besieged by Police. He has just shot a man dead in a fit of anger and we flashback to his memories of how the shooting came to happen. It's a tale of star-crossed lovers and Jean Gabin is magnificent as a roughneck Romeo with a gentle soul.

I read that RKO acquired the rights to the film in 1947 so they could remake itand so set about burning all copies. Thankfully this was not successful and copies of 'Daybreak' survived. I also read that the 'Daybreak's main-character and his fate were intended as a metaphor for pre-war French Politics but that's a bit above my pay grade if it was. I just liked the movie ;) .


An influence on Indiana Jones next.
 

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79 years ago...

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Gunga Din (1939)
Director: George Stevens
Country: United States
Length: 117 minutes
Type: Adventure, Comedy

I heard this was an influence on 'Temple of Doom' so perhaps I had unreasonable expectations. 'Gunga Din' does feature a Kali death-cult in a sinister temple, a precarious rope bridge over a chasm, a snake pit and plenty of Indian-set adventure. The DNA is definitely there but there isn't that central dashing hero, the focus is mostly on comedy larks and the action only really kicks in at the finale. If I watched it again, I'd not be trying to make comparisons and just enjoy the quarreling interplay between brothers-in-arms Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.


Another Greta Garbo film next.
 

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78 years ago...

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Ninotchka (1939)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Country: United States
Length: 110 minutes
Type: Political, Satire, Drama, Romance

Part of watching through this list is seeing the classics "I always meant to see" but it's also finding gems like 'Ninotchka' that I knew nothing about. The film begins with three shabby looking Soviet officials staring astonished at a lavish Parisian Hotel. Their Socialist principles instantly begin to crumble and they indulge themselves to the Royal Suite, Champagne and pretty girls. That's when the stern, robotic and intimidating Russian envoy Ninotchka (Greta Garbo) is sent to take charge.

What starts as a clever and hilarious satire of Stalinist values, becomes a wonderful east-meets-west romance in the middle and ends with a more Sober look into everyday realities under a Totalitarian regime. Hollywood would have done well to dispute Communist ideas through further satirical films like this, rather than the shameful witch-hunts and blacklisting that would occur in the post-war years. 'Ninotchka' would go well in a double-bill with Armando Iannucci's recent 'The Death of Stalin'. It seems unbelieveable to read that this sparkling performance would be the last but one that Garbo would ever make before retiring from movies forever, aged just 35.


Another Renoir film next.
 

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TM2YC said:
An influence on Indiana Jones next.

I was expecting ‘Secret of the Incas’. I have it, still haven’t got round to seeing it.
 

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I have “Ninotchka” on my watch-list.  It must be wonderful.  It is also famous for being one of the few (perhaps the only) film where Greta Garbo pulls a full-on smile!   :D
 

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Canon Editor said:
I have “Ninotchka” on my watch-list.  It must be wonderful.  It is also famous for being one of the few (perhaps the only) film where Greta Garbo pulls a full-on smile!   :D

I'm not sure that's entirely true. I've only seen a few of her films but she laughed and smiled in them. It's true she is much more famous for being moody and introspective and saying things like "I vant to be alone".
 
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