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Reviews
Casablanca (1942)
of all the gin joints in the pictures...
Hell yeah. I'm not even sure why I put this off for so long, maybe just projecting my fear of failure onto cinema history? I can count the number of movies that lived up to their reputations on one and a half hands, I'm sure, but this is one of them. Desert played for night even at day, Bogart the beautiful and Bergman the brusque, convoluted and borderline irrelevant WWII backdrop that buoys the main action... I love movies that can blend genres and feelings seamlessly, and this one is what -- romance, noir, thriller, comedy, war movie? It plays like the flipside to any big tentpole movie about the war, like we are privy to a dimly lit, far more interesting corner of a far more boring action movie. Kind of shocked I dug it so much!
Union Pacific (1939)
romance, the undiscovered country
You always know what you're going to get with Demille movies: brute action, razzle dazzle, and more background actors than can plausibly fit on a billion movie screens. I love McCrea and Stanwyck as a couple here and elsewhere: the quips fly at you two at a time, and there's no shortage of begrudging chemistry. The effects and action sequences in this flick are impressive -- just about the only time you're taken out of a well-hewn west is when the Union Pacific plunges off an icy clime. It looks like a Lionel. Other than that, this movie isn't child's play, and though it doesn't paint a wholly accurate picture of the frontier, it at least tries to in places...
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
that is the preoccupation
I wasn't familiar with Jack Benny going into this movie, other than his rep that said he couldn't cross over into film. I don't really see why, I thought he was quite capable and had a command of guises and disguises that weren't dissimilar from someone like Sacha Guitry. There can also be a connection made to Preston Sturges, with all the madcappery going on that still feels just as vital today. Some of the jokes could very well be inserted into an episode of The Simpsons and viewers wouldn't bat an eyelash. I loved seeing Robert Stack show up as a dippy flingy paramour. I think what impresses me most with To Be Or Not To Be is the sense of play throughout, and not just onstage. There are matters of love, life and death that are treated most often as debonair or romantic whimsy. A farce about humanity's greatest threat. IN YOUR FACE, Hitler
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Jehovahstein
Bride of Frankenstein tries to accomplish a lot, and half the time I was unsure what these things were, or at least which general tone was intended. I enjoyed this and Whale's Franken-predecessor, but they both suffer from these nearly identical topsy-turvy moods. Horror, rue, and gut-busters all dwell under the same runtime, and admittedly, my cinematic bread & butter is the kind of movie that can fuse genre and mood and still be of a piece, but a lot of these movies don't quite hang together. I will say that I'm crushing super hard on Elsa Lanchester, who burns on the screen like a no-frills, spectral version of Rose McGowan or something. One of my favorite scenes is when the monster growls his way into a hermitage. That monk isn't just kind or blind, I get the sense that he'd be that stupid (or perhaps much more kind-hearted than me) if his eyes worked.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Mister Hamburger
It's difficult to talk first impressions with this movie, because it is one of my absolute all-time favorite movies and would go high on a list if I was that kinda dude. There's something about it. I know it's manipulative and kinda facile by today's standards, but I'm a bleeding heart liberal and it plays all the requisite notches on my spine like a marimba. I like that it doesn't shy away from relying on silent movie techniques and visuals to tell the story. Maybe I have a guilty conscience, but I also love the perfect explication of what it feels like to be constantly put upon and on the run. Or maybe I just relate to the humanity of the story. A bonus is the borderline ridiculous screen presence of Hale Hamilton as James Allen's forthright older brother. Who is that guy, and where did he disappear to? So funny and so devastating in equal measure. What else? This movie has one of the coolest endings ever, too.
Baby Face (1933)
boxcar betty makes like J. Paula Getty
Baby Face unloads 80 mins. of twee sexuality, and remains almost relentlessly contextual in its feminism, from blushing start to coquettish finish. I'd be charmed by how the movie deals frankly with gender and opportunism, but the message is kinda clubbed at the knees by the moralizing at the end. I love Barbara Stanwyck, but mostly know her from noirish roles, so it's easy to forget how hot she is in her earlier roles, as she seemed to turn an abrupt corner into matronly out of nowhere. One of my favorite bits in this movie was watching her literally sleep her way up to the top, complete with scale model of a skyscraper with notes on the windows of each story denoting her assumed jobs/conquests. I also thought it was neat seeing John Wayne in a bit part, and wish I could see him in similarly understated roles elsewhere. Just about the only thing that marred the whole picture for me was that she kept the maidservant along, only to keep giving her subservient roles. Come on, 20th century!!
My Man Godfrey (1936)
gentry v. garbage
My Man Godfrey is a wonderful little screwball comedy, made irresistible in large part by the presence of the magnetically adorable bimbo Cornelia Bullock, as played by Carole Lombard. She makes it easier for me to overlook an aspect of the movie that I found troubling: sure, he was a dirty derelict, but it wasn't as if he was truly a member of the great unwashed. We learn fairly early on that he is a Harvard alum, and while the movie uses social justice as a buoy to hint at having a message, this detail knocked it in the kneecaps for me. Despite this, I was a fan of the fakeout moments of suspenseful anti-slapstick, and of the supporting family members, who in lesser hands could have been acted much more flatly and less vivaciously. Eugene Palette, especially, is a favorite and pretty much a guarantor of a good time whenever I see his name come up in opening credits, and these ones in particular are some of the snazziest from the early sound era!
Stagecoach (1939)
the comraderie corral
To put it mildly, I wasn't the hugest fan of this movie the first time I watched it. It wasn't until I viewed it for class, forced to sit still and actually stay with the movie, that everything began to click for me. The boredom I felt upon first pass was now, oddly, acting as a benefit instead of an annoyance or distraction. Who knows, this might be the first big movie about boredom -- or not necessarily boredom, but the idea of being forced into a situation, and of taking a journey alongside strangers with which you wouldn't otherwise identify. John Wayne may have been the big "get," but I loved John Carradine and Thomas Mitchell most of all. Talk about two dudes meant for the silver screen. I'm not saying they share a ton in common, but by the journey's end, I was curiously reminded of The Breakfast Club. THINK ABOUT IT.
The Kid Brother (1927)
Bucolic and brutish
I'd only seen bits of The Milky Way and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock prior to this, and those don't really count, so it's safe to say that this is the first all-caps HAROLD LLOYD movie I've ever seen. I thought it was interesting how the whole movie felt like it could have been conceived by a slapstick loving version of Joseph Campbell with a daddy complex. It's such a naive and fun take on the hero's journey. I guess today's lovable goof would need to have some vaguely creepy or sexual element a la The 40 Year Old Virgin or something. I say this because I just don't see audiences these days going in for something as innocent and big-hearted as the conceit of trying endlessly to please one's father. It's a weird thing to be sure, especially when tied intrinsically to a romance angle wherein he can only become a man by winning the admiration of a (very gorgeous) lass at the same time as his dad, but that's what kept me invested, I guess. It's almost too personal to just be comedic. It's also got a surprising number of good looking shots. I don't know why gags like tears turning into rain or a pig wearing a bowler hat on its back are so freaking funny and bizarre, either. I also don't know if it is just a century's remove that made the last third a bit tedious, but it didn't ruin the overall film for me and I quite liked getting to see the twerp becoming a dude!
The Circus (1928)
Left-wings of desire
The Circus was one of a handful of Chaplin movies I hadn't yet seen, and it displays his romantic and social justice hallmarks in spades. Though he plays around with a distinctly American version of perseverance, and asks a timeless question of what humor is, it's hard to imagine a movie like this being bankrolled today. Poverty doesn't seem to be nearly as "virtuous" or relatable in our world anymore, at least not within the confines of a comedy. If there's a message movie here, however, it's buried in enough gags and heartstring tugs that the progressive message within doesn't ever beat you over the head, and might even sail right by. Chaplin knows that you can't fake funny, exemplified in perhaps my favorite scene -- his audition. In his way, he might even be critiquing the producers and money men who bankrolled his stuff, maybe some of his audience too. There is a pervasive vibe throughout the movie, a battle between what people expect and what is delivered, what people think they want and what they actually might prefer. I loved it. A lot of Chaplin's movies can get bogged down in the Message, but this was airy and light and capable. There were really adorable piglets and squirrel monkeys also, so if you enjoy either of those critters (and want a genuine romance thrown in too) you could do worse than spending an hour with this movie!