kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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A note about some of the less familiar films on my list, most of which have been shown on TCM:
COUNSELLOR AT LAW is a William Wyler film based on an Elmer Rice play, and one of the best translations of play to film that I know. Wyler keeps the action in the law office and the corridor outside, and the directing is superb. John Barrymore plays a lawyer from humble origins who has been successful and has married a high society wife. We see a variety of his clients on the day that his personal and professional lives start to fall apart. Fun fact: two future directors are in this film. Vincent Sherman plays a Communist agitator and Richard Quine plays Barrymore's whiny, ungrateful stepson.
EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE is classic pre-Code. Warren William plays a driven department store owner who has an eye for the women who work there, Loretta Young among them. A hit at the TCM festival a couple of years ago.
BED OF ROSES is a Gregory La Cava romantic comedy. Constance Bennett sponges and steals from men, but finally falls for a good guy (Joel McCrea). Pert Kelton plays the best friend with the snappy repartee and steals every scene she's in.
THE SILVER CORD is based on a Sidney Howard play about a mother who keeps her two sons tightly tied to her with that metaphoric silver cord. Pity the woman like Irene Dunne who falls for one of them. Laura Hope Crews has the juicy role of the mother from hell. I saw this years ago on TV; perhaps there are rights difficulties that have kept it off TCM.
THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE is based on Faulkner's novel SANCTUARY. Even if the most shocking detail from the novel is left out of the movie, it's still strong stuff, and was one of the films that vanished once the Production Code started being enforced in July 1934. Miriam Hopkins is well cast as the strong and willful Southern belle who is no match for the gangster (Jack La Rue) she becomes involved with.
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Calvin, thanks for posting this. I agree with the two critics even less than I agree with the actual Oscar winners, but anyone who trashes BRAVEHEART can't be all bad.
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Lawrence has us off to a great start for 1933. I forgot a noteworthy performance in 1932: Lee Tracy deserved a mention in the Best Actor category for THE HALF-NAKED TRUTH, a Gregory La Cava comedy which is as funny as its name.
1933:
Best Actor:
Groucho Marx, DUCK SOUP*
Warren William, EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE
John Barrymore, COUNSELLOR AT LAW
Nils Asther, THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN
Charles Laughton, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII
Lee Tracy, BOMBSHELL
Spencer Tracy, MAN'S CASTLE
Best Actress:
Katharine Hepburn, LITTLE WOMEN* (my favorite KH performance)
Barbara Stanwyck, BABY FACE
Barbara Stanwyck, THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN
Greta Garbo, QUEEN CHRISTINA
Miriam Hopkins, THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE
Miriam Hopkins, DESIGN FOR LIVING
Jean Harlow, BOMBSHELL
Jean Harlow, DINNER AT EIGHT
Marie Dressler, DINNER AT EIGHT
Best Supporting Actress:
Pert Kelton, BED OF ROSES*
Joan Bennett, LITTLE WOMEN
Margaret Dumont, DUCK SOUP
Laura Hope Crews, THE SILVER CORD
Elsa Lanchester, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII
Special "This Year I Didn't Play a Nun, a Farmer's Daughter, or a Bishop's Wife" Award to Loretta Young, who 1) cheated on her boyfriend by sleeping with her boss (EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE), 2) got pregnant out of wedlock by a hobo (MAN'S CASTLE), and 3) ran a gang when her gangster boyfriend got sent to jail (MIDNIGHT MARY), and was quite good in all three movies.
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You have to buy your pass to the festival long before the final schedule comes out, which is usually about three weeks before the festival. As films and guest stars are committed to the event, TCM will announce them. At least 20-30 movies will not be announced before the schedule comes out.
The good news is that because of the multiple venues, there's almost always a movie you'd like to see, and usually more than one. The TCM programmers do a fine job of including a variety of old favorites and rarities. They make a point of selecting different kinds of films for a wide variety of tastes.
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One of the unfortunate aspects of Brando's career is his transformation from Adonis to Shamu. As a young man he was handsome--"beautiful" might be even more accurate--but, for whatever reason, he did not take care of his physique. I knew someone in college who was very good-looking but wanted to be accepted as a serious intellectual, and I think there was something of that in Brando's makeup.
Brando is certainly one of the best actors of the 1950s, but, as far as I am concerned, no other decade. At least by MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY Brando seems to be watching himself play a character rather than just playing the character. "Look at me playing an English fop when we both know I'm really an American tough guy!" At least that is how it strikes me.
I like Brando best when he's working for a strong director like Kazan or Zinnemann and when he is playing opposite strong actors. One of the most interesting performances (not necessarily his best) is his Antony in JULIUS CAESAR. John Gielgud worked with him on Shakespearean technique, and Brando makes much more use of his voice than in his other roles. Gielgud wanted Brando to come to England and play Shakespeare on stage, and I wish that Brando had done so.
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An interesting variation on the impostor theme occurs in NIGHT SONG. Perhaps this will be shown during Merle Oberon's SOTM.
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Some additional noirish westerns:
Pursued - may be the most noirish of all
Blood on the Moon
Day of the Outlaw - Andre de Toth made some excellent noirs, like Crime Wave
Colorado Territory - may not feel quite so noirish, but it's a remake of High Sierra as a western
The Badlanders - a kind of remake of The Asphalt Jungle, though less noirish in feel than some of the others mentioned
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If you've only seen Myrna Loy in the Thin Man series, The Best Years of Our Lives, etc., it may be a shock to see her as a scheming Eurasian villain in THIRTEEN WOMEN. This is how she was typecast in her early career. Sorority girls have been cruel to the Eurasian outsider, so she determines to have revenge on them, making use of her supposed psychic powers.
ME AND MY GAL, directed by Raoul Walsh, is sort of a police vs. bad guys film, but as the title suggests, the best part is romantic comedy, with flatfoot Spencer Tracy and diner waitress Joan Bennett making a really cute couple. Joan was a peroxide blonde in those days. One scene parodies STRANGE INTERLUDE, referred to as "Strange Inner Tube."
THE MATCH KING was based on the life of Ivar Kreuger, who had risen from nothing to become a wealthy industrialist. He originated the "three on a match" superstition, the better to sell more matches.
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Well the movie I was watching was HAWAII made in 1965. The picture was beautiful-deep saturated colors with the blackest black-very crisp. I then watched "the making of..." featurette much like other MGM 10 minute promos of the day. THOSE scenes showed looked terrible-all washed out, grainy images of the actors & crew.
Either they used substandard film stock (possibly someone's personal 8mm camera?) or maybe since it was off-the-cuff filming, using available light made the difference? The featurette looked terrible and obviously good film stock was available at the time, since the movie was so gorgeous.
Are some 70's movies "awful looking" because no one bothered? I thought some of it had to do with the "oil shortage crisis", they found alternative materials to make film from, substandard alternatives.
Plus, film is "processed" (remember THAT?) anyone can keep film in a solution too long or not long enough and change the "look" of a print. There were skilled colorists all along the way to the product your eyes see on the screen.
Ah, a history lesson of film.
Another possibility is that HAWAII had been restored and the featurette had not been. Documentaries are often in poor shape because they include snippets of film from a variety of sources and film stocks.
I can't agree more about how bad some films from the 1970s look. The worst decade for cinematography, with the possible exception of our own digital age.
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Notes on a few of the films Lawrence hasn't seen:
FORBIDDEN - Frank Capra directs this melodrama. Barbara Stanwyck stars as a woman who becomes the mistress of a prominent politician and has a child by him. Ralph Bellamy doesn't get the girl, then he does, and how well does that work out for him?
JEWEL ROBBERY - Kay Francis plays a rich woman with many jewels. William Powell is a suave and sophisticated jewel thief. Of course they're going to fall in love.
ONE WAY PASSAGE - Kay Francis plays a woman with very little time left to live. William Powell is being taken back to prison where he will be executed. Neither knows the other's secret. They meet on a boat crossing the Pacific. Aline MacMahon has a great part as a gal who's been around.
THE PENGUIN POOL MURDER - Based on the book by Stuart Palmer. This is the first of the Hildegarde Withers mysteries. Edna May Oliver plays Miss Withers, and James Gleason is Inspector Piper. The two make a surprisingly cute couple.
SO BIG - Based on the Edna Ferber novel. As is usually the case with Ferber, this is a two-generation saga, which doesn't always translate easily to the screen. This version, directed by William Wellman, is probably not quite so good as the 1950s version directed by Robert Wise, but both are worth seeing. Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who, despite being widowed at an early age, becomes a prominent farmer. Her son then gets a good education, and one of the women he meets is a painter named Dallas (aren't they all?) played by Bette Davis. Unfortunately, Stanwyck and Davis have no scenes together. They are in one shot together, having conversations on different side of a room.
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Bogie, I'm glad you mentioned Lowell Sherman. And one of the biggest changes from 1931 to 1932 is that Clark Gable has graduated from supporting roles in A FREE SOUL and NIGHT NURSE to starring in RED DUST.
Bette Davis moves forward, too. I don't believe any of us mentioned THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD, but George Arliss was very impressed by working with her, and this helped Warner Brothers pay more attention to her. THE CABIN IN THE COTTON begins to feel like a "Bette Davis movie," even though Richard Barthelmess has the larger role.
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Kid, many thanks for reposting the article. I knew orange and blue were everywhere, and now I know why.
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A CLOCKWORK ORANGE: much too violent. Not a fan of sadistic thugs as heroes.
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL: There was only so much of Hitler's speech that I could take.
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I believe my vote would go to Cary Grant for THE AWFUL TRUTH.
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Movies where the pony in question might have learned another trick:
The Long Voyage Home - John Wayne plays a supporting role to Thomas Mitchell. Wayne plays a rather shy sailor who is far from being "John Wayne."
The Secret Heart, The Shrike - June Allyson plays unsympathetic characters quite different from the ones she is best known for.
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Today most movies look like they've been shot in the dark. They've lost the bright rich color of the past. When William Holden dances with Kim Novack in Picnic, we know it is evening but they are beautifully photographed and bathed in a subtle light. Now that same scene would have them in dark blue and you hardly would see them.
The primary reason for the dark scenes in current movies and TV is that the director and the cinematographer want to emphasize that this is THEIR CHOICE. Almost every director is a would-be "auteur" who wants the scene to be about the director, not the actors, not the story. The more filters are used, the more we are forced to notice the cinematographer. I am not sure how the state of available film stock and digital photography plays into this.
A particularly gruesome example of this is the recent BBC miniseries LONDON SPY. Good cast, a story with possibilities. But this interior shot to look dark red, that interior shot to look dark brown, lots of night scenes, actors only partially visible. The shots are dysfunctional as well as ugly because it is frequently hard to tell what is supposed to be going on. Unfortunately, this is representative of much modern work.
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I once actually referred to Peter Falk as a one-trick pony, so he was the first person who came to mind. He's an old-style character actor who (unfortunately, to my taste) got leading roles. This happens sometimes.
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Best Supporting Actor for 1932:
Adolphe Menjou, A FAREWELL TO ARMS*
Lionel Barrymore, GRAND HOTEL
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IT ALL CAME TRUE is an oddball film, oddball as in Humphrey Bogart and ZaSu Pitts in the same movie. Bogart's a criminal hiding out in her boarding house. There's some drama, some comedy, some romance, some vaudeville acts. It's a lot of fun.
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Best Actor for 1932:
Paul Muni, I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG*
Paul Muni, SCARFACE
John Barrymore, GRAND HOTEL
Warren William, THE MATCH KING
William Powell, ONE WAY PASSAGE
William Powell, JEWEL ROBBERY
Spencer Tracy, ME AND MY GAL
Best Actress for 1932:
Greta Garbo, GRAND HOTEL*
Joan Crawford, GRAND HOTEL
Miriam Hopkins, TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Jean Harlow, RED DUST
Joan Bennett, ME AND MY GAL
Marlene Dietrich, SHANGHAI EXPRESS
Helen Hayes, A FAREWELL TO ARMS
Outstanding Male Star: Paul Muni
Outstanding Female Star: Kay Francis - With JEWEL ROBBERY, ONE WAY PASSAGE, and TROUBLE IN PARADISE all in the same year (probably the three best films she ever made), she deserves some special recognition.
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I think Paul Muni made a career mistake when he didn't insist on doing leading man roles as well as the biopics. He had the looks to play romantic leads, and I prefer him in contemporary roles.
My Best Actor list will look very much like Tom's, especially at the top. Tom also mentioned someone I had left out of the supporting actor considerations. The Special Thanks category is a great idea.
And how could I have left out Mary Astor in RED DUST?
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Bogey, I'll revise my post to match yours. Ann Dvorak is awfully good in both SCARFACE and THREE ON A MATCH. She also starred in 1932 in a film called THE STRANGE LOVE OF MOLLY LOUVAIN, which TCM has shown. Unfortunately, her career is not going to take off. She's terrific in a couple of excellent 1947 films, THE LONG NIGHT and THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI, but neither is well known.
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1932 had a number of interesting films in diverse genres. Once again, I'm having trouble finding candidates for Supporting Actor, but let's start off with Best Supporting Actress. Despite the Rooney Mara Principle, whereby every actress in every film has been nominated in the supporting category, my executive decision is that Ann Dvorak is a lead actress in both THREE ON A MATCH and SCARFACE, which is why she is not mentioned here.
Second thoughts: Since Bogey has placed Ann in supporting categories, I'll follow his lead.
Best Supporting Actress for 1932:
Ann Dvorak, THREE ON A MATCH*
Ann Dvorak, SCARFACE
Aline MacMahon, ONE WAY PASSAGE
Anna May Wong, SHANGHAI EXPRESS
Bette Davis, SO BIG
Glenda Farrell, I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG
Karen Morley, SCARFACE
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Cody, I imagine that this is the print of the film that TCM received. Whether they can get a better print with some arm-twisting is another question. It's possible that the film is in serious need of restoration.
Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...
in Your Favorites
Posted
Tom, I'm not familiar with Henrietta Crosman or PILGRIMAGE.
I couldn't agree more about the excellent performances this year, with Hepburn, Stanwyck, and Garbo (to name only a few) all doing some of their best work.