coffeedan1927
-
Posts
1,858 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by coffeedan1927
-
-
-
-
Caveat emptor: I always reach for the salt shaker when approaching anything by Kenneth Anger. He has butted heads with a lot of Hollywood folk, so naturally he has a lot of axes to grind. In addition, many reputable film scholars have found he lacks the documentation to back up his claims. Every time he has been challenged, he comes up short. (David Stenn dealt with Anger's unreliability at length in his book on Clara Bow.)
Back in my newspaper days, I found that the general consensus about Anger among the pillars of the Hollywood community was that of a cheap pornographer and would-be blackmailer. At one time, some people felt threatened by him, but the years and challenges have taken the edge off his allegations to the point that hardly anybody takes him seriously any more.
There are probably some authentic items in Anger's books, but they are few and far between. Remember the old wisdom: "Don't believe everything you hear, and only half of what you see." That certainly applies to Anger's work.
-
-
-
That's the 1937 Astaire-Rogers picture SHALL WE DANCE.
-
Scott, if you can wait until March 21, TCM is going to be showing the 1933 and 1941 versions of WHEN LADIES MEET back to back. This is one of several textbook examples of how pre-Code stories were "cleaned up" after the Code was revised and more rigidly enforced.
A few more pairs to compare and contrast: the 1929 film THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY with Norma Shearer and the 1937 remake with Joan Crawford; the 1932 classic THREE ON A MATCH and its tamer remake from 1938, BROADWAY MUSKETEERS; and the 1932 film THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. remade in 1939 as THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL with John Garfield.
One interesting film I recently found out about is Ernst Lubitsch's 1934 version of THE MERRY WIDOW. This was one of the first films released under the Code, with 13 cuts ordered by Joe Breen after its Los Angeles premiere. Reportedly, Irving Thalberg loved this film so much that he had a print struck for himself before the negative was edited. It is this edited version of THE MERRY WIDOW that has been released on commerical video, but the 35mm and 16mm theatrical prints and the TCM version are based on Thalberg's print. I recently sat down and compared these two versions when TCM aired THE MERRY WIDOW recently. The cuts are minimal -- most of them are inserts and probably don't add up to a minute of film altogether -- but, boy, what a sexy dimension they add to the story!
-
-
-
-
-
It's official! TCM's original documentary COMPLICATED WOMEN, based on Mick LaSalle's book about sex and power in pre-Code Hollywood, will premiere in May along with a 24-film retrospective on Tuesday nights. It includes several TCM premieres, most notably DESIGN FOR LIVING (another Ernst Lubitsch film -- hooray!), MURDER AT THE VANITIES, and the long-unavailable TORCH SINGER.
And there are many more pre-Code goodies sprinkled throughout the month, including a Robert Montgomery birthday salute featuring his early talkies and pre-Codes. Lots of movies featuring Norma Shearer, Ruth Chatterton, Ann Harding, and others make this a real feast. Hold onto your seats, folks, May's got nothing but good news for us pre-Code fans!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
I set my VCR for this one too, Alix -- and I liked it so much I rewound it and watched it again! There is so much going on in this film it's hard to believe it lasts only 58 minutes. Wallace Ford and Joan Blondell make such a good pair in this film, and Guy Kibbee really got to me too.
Whoever edited the music on this film must have been laughing up his sleeve. In the first scene where Ford and Blondell are eying each other at the hot dog stand, a hurdy-gurdy is playing "Barney Google (With His Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)." And in the scene where Ford beats up and gets away from his gangster captor, the radio is blaring "Let's Put Out The Lights And Go To Sleep." And did you notice that the film began with a traffic signal changing from STOP to GO and ended with the same signal changing from GO to STOP?
I was also thinking what an eventful year 1932 was for Wallace Ford. Always busy in smaller roles (he once suggested his tombstone should read "Here I am -- top billing at last!"), he had several prominent roles that year. Besides CENTRAL PARK, he played Phroso in FREAKS (as you mentioned), Walter Huston's detective brother who fell hard for Jean Harlow in THE BEAST OF THE CITY, and Warren William's rival for Loretta Young in EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE (released in '33). I also remember him as the cab driver in HARVEY (1950). Ford turns up in a lot of movies in the 30s and 40s, and he's always a joy to watch.
-
-
-
-
-
Here's a couple more: The scene after the 1907 BEN HUR is from RESCUED FROM AN EAGLE'S NEST. And the scene where the train flips over the car is from THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
femme fatale film driving me nuts
in General Discussions
Posted
It's a pre-Code classic -- BABY FACE (1933), starring Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, and a very young John Wayne.