Wings (1927) July 31, 2006
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Action-Adventure , add a comment
Wings (1927) certainly impresses with its action sequences both on the ground and particularly up in the air. They are among the finest in any war film I would say, the depiction of World War I is excellent and exciting. What would have made those dog fights even better would have been a few sound effects, they were I believe in many release prints and in clips in the Hollywood series (A Celebration of American Silent Film, Thames TV, 1979). Not all theatres would have been equipped for such a soundtrack in 1927 but I really believe it would add a lot to the impact of this film though the battle scenes are excellent as they are.
Unfortunately once we get out of the plane the movie I believe hasn’t aged all that well. It’s not headed for a spread-eagled crash but its not really too good. The main problem is the love stories : the love triangle between Buddy Rogers, Dick Arlen and Jobyna Ralston (Harold Lloyd’s leading lady in six features) just isn’t very interesting. Poor Jobyna gets so little to do, she looks delightful but she could really have walked off the set of Girl Shy (1924) its Miss Buckingham all over again. The end of her part of the story is rounded out with a shot of her crying, that’s all.
Clara Bow fares a lot better : it was definitely her presence that kept my interest in the early reels : the lady had sparkle and bounce. I don’t understand how Rogers can’t see that Clara is the girl of his dreams, if I could go on a date with any silent actress I would ask for her phone number. The best bits apart from the combat scenes are definitely those in which she appears though she looks a bit weird dressed up as a soldier. I love the section in Paris and at the Folies Bergere, then Clara being caught in a state of undress in Buddy’s room ! Pity she then disappears for most of the rest of the movie.
As to a comparison with the most famous silent war film : The Big Parade (1925) this didn’t move me in the same way as that did, possibly because I found the back story less believable and Rogers and Arlen are simply not John Gilbert.
For most of the time this appears a bit more hawkish than The Big Parade (1925) though they certainly show the harsh realities of war clearly enough. Still an important film as the first Academy Award winner, I’m delighted to have seen it. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Top Ancient Roman Movies
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Here are a few really good Roman epics and stately ancient Romans :
Ben Hur (1925, 1959) both versions feature Ancient Rome quite strongly though Jack Hawkins in the remake can’t be beaten as a stately Roman general who takes Judah Ben Hur under his wing after Heston saves his life.
Sign of the Cross (1932) : gives us a wonderful overdone Emperor Nero from Charles Laughton. Claudette Colbert’s Poppea is really Cleopatra in everything but name : in a bath of milk she exclaims to another girl who imparts some gossip : “come in here and tell me all about it.”
Cleopatra (1934, 1963) Colbert does her Cleopatra, not as good as Elizabeth Taylor IMO : neither is perfect. In the 1963 version Richard Burton is a fairly weak Mark Antony but I think Rex Harrison’s Julius Caesar is excellent.
Spartacus (1960) : my favourite Roman epic : Olivier is superb as Spartacus main adversary. Another scene-stealing performance from Charles Laughton as a wily Roman senator.
Gladiator (2000) : despite the phoney CGI, a pretty good revival of the Roman epic.
Ziegfeld on Film
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Musical , add a commentMGM made three tributes to Broadway’s greatest showman.
The first and best was probably The Great Ziegfeld (1936) with a great performance from William Powell holding it together. A Best Picture winner in its day this film has its moments : the Pretty Girl Is Like Melody number is stupendous, also You Never Looked So Beautiful Before must have cost a fortune in ostrich feathers. A few of the other big numbers are a bit boring though particularly when compared with say Busby Berkeley, the worst one is about the circus which features Harriet Hoctor, a not very exciting dancer who appeared to little effect in a few Thirties musicals.
Its great to see a few performers who actually worked for Ziegfeld : Fanny Brice singing My Man (which they ruin by cutting away) and Ray Bolger but its a pity they had to draft in a lookalike for Eddie Cantor. The rest of it is pretty standard showbiz biopic stuff that would have been much better if it had been subjected to the editor’s scissors. Frank Morgan is of course Frank Morgan (did he play any other part in any of his movies !) and Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for chewing the scenery. (3 stars out of 5)
Five years later MGM treated us to Ziegfeld Girl (1941) in which the great showman doesn’t appear. Another rather overlong film which steals a few choice musical numbers from the original : more dramatic this one with Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Judy Garland. Judy is in pretty good form. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Then we had Ziegfeld Follies (1945) in preparation for years, a sort of 20 year anniversary film for MGM : really a plotless revue film presented by Powell from heaven. The best stuff had Fred Astaire dancing with Lucille Bremer to This Heart of Mine and with Gene Kelly in The Babbitt and the Bromide. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Ziggy was portrayed in a few other films including The Jolson Story (1946) and Funny Girl (1968) : here looking rather old and distinguished in the form of Walter Pidgeon opposite Barbra Striesand’s Fanny Brice.
Sherlock Junior (1924)
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Comedy , add a comment 
This is a very good film and very cinematic. It almost sums up Buster Keaton’s attitudes to his art. The fact that he was so interested in using “cinema” and the mechanics of it in his films. He didn’t resort though to camera trickery for its own sake as some lesser comedians did. The sequence in which he walks into the cinema screen is incredible even today. Keaton’s cameraman Elgin Lessley had to film the theatre set and cinema shots which cut to exteriors as two separate negatives on the same strip of film, matching them precisely. The dream movie sequence also feeds into Keaton’s love for satirising dramatic films of the period. On that level it works very well, it is quite exciting and dramatic how Buster defeats the bad guys and avoids being blown up by the fake pool balls. Some scholars have suggested that there may be footage missing from the film though I can’t confirm if this is true.
The framing material around the dream sequence isn’t quite as good in my opinion though I suppose that is hardly surprising. I found the leading lady Kathryn McGuire and the villain Ward Crane fairly dull in the real world footage. Keaton generally isn’t a laugh out loud comedian either, this film tends to impress me more than make me laugh. It is funny but Buster never rated on the laughometer as high as Chaplin,Lloyd or Laurel and Hardy did for me. Still there is much here of interest and still sequences which astonish like the famous story of Buster breaking his neck while doing one of the stunts. This occurred in the sequence where a train comes out from under him and he rides a giant water tower down to the track. The water had a huge force and forced Buster’s neck down on the railroad track. He was off work for a few days but didn’t find out till years later that he had fractured his neck.
At the time the film wasn’t very popular, the next feature The Navigator (1924) was more successful. While that is a good film it does drag a bit, the short running time makes Sherlock Junior a better film overall though Kathryn McGuire is a bit more lively and interesting in The Navigator.
In the Keaton canon I would rank Sherlock Junior (1924) quite highly because it definitely shows Buster as an innovative filmmaker and inventive comedian. I prefer The General (1926) and Our Hospitality (1923) because I believe they have more interesting characters, stories and are stronger comedically but Sherlock Junior (1924) is my choice for Buster’s third best feature.
(3 1/2 stars out of 5)
They Live by Night (1948)
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Thriller , add a comment 
Fascinating film noir here directed by Nicholas Ray who later did Rebel Without A Cause (1955). It stars Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell as a Bonnie and Clyde like couple though nowhere near as violent. In fact she isn’t involved in any of the rough stuff and he is coerced by two heavies one with one eye ! They believe he owes them for springing him from jail. Ironically Granger’s character is labelled the head of the group by the cops. It is the theme really new then of the young people who should have a great future in front them who can’t escape their past. You just know there will be no happy ending to this one. It is well done and really hooked me from the moment Granger and O’Donnell get together though the romance is rather muted perhaps in keeping with the atmsphere of doom. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Drama , add a commentThis was the first Errol Flynn film I ever saw and I still have fond memories of that. The Korngold score is sweepingly majestic as ever and it looked sumptuous in Technicolor.
This though is much more Davis’ film than Flynns it lacks some the action scenes from his other swashbucklers and westerns from this period and he appears to lack some of the dash he had in say Robin Hood or The Sea Hawk. Maybe he was slightly miscast as Essex : he is definitely a Hollywood Essex.
Davis reportedly wanted Laurence Olivier and believed Flynn was out of his depth. They do well to make the love story convincing which is really the heart of this story. Davis is fine as Elizabeth giving us again a very Hollywood exaggerated slightly histrionic portrayal.
Of course a film with this cast couldn’t be bad but Davis and Flynn did quite a few films better than this. Davis was better in Now Voyager (1942), also films like The Letter (1940) and All About Eve (1950) are more essential to me than her Elizabeth.
(2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Classic Movie Years : 1925 July 29, 2006
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1925 was one of the banner years if not the greatest year of the silent screen. It was a quality year for both silent comedy and drama. It represented the peak I would say of silent comedy, the Big Three comics had excellent years : Chaplin and Lloyd had their biggest hits ever based on numbers at the box office and profits : Keaton’s two releases Seven Chances and Go West while not his very best were still very charming and entertaining in their way.
For drama MGM really made its presence felt in its first full year of existence with two big hits which stand up very well today. Interestingly Fairbanks and Pickford had disappointing years by their high standards with Don Q, Son of Zorro and Little Annie Rooney among their lesser works. Don Q does leap into life in the final 45 minutes though with some of Fairbanks’ trademark stunting and exuberance. John Gilbert had an excellent year with two really good films one of which is a masterpiece but Valentino made a comeback too though it was sadly to be short lived.
The German cinema had a quiet year compared with earlier in the decade : all the Europeans are really overshadowed by Eisenstein and his incredibly influential Potemkin.
My Top Ten countdown :
10. Strike! (Sergei Eisenstein)
This is actually an easier watch than Potemkin, it is more human in its concerns with its focus on a workers’ strike. Obviously it is propaganda and Eisenstein was still learning his film-making craft. He was never a director with a light touch but there are impressive montage sequences in this his first feature.
9. Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)
Buster Keaton never thought much of this movie. Based on a play it was pretty much forced on him by his producer Joseph Schenck. Characteristically though Buster made the story of a man who has a day to marry in order to claim an inheritance very much his own. This is light comedy of the highest order fitting Buster’s persona perfectly and the way he treated women in his films. The final chase where he is hounded by hundreds of ladies is a masterpiece of surrealist humour and very funny. It is a toss up between this film and Go West for the best Keaton of the year. Go West has a similar climax in which Buster leads hundreds of cattle through the streets but the wild women just have the edge.
8. The Eagle (Clarence Brown)
Valentino’s popularity had diminished quite a bit by 1925 but this delightful film in which he plays a sort of Russian Robin Hood revived his career. Sadly it was to be the Italian idol’s penultimate film.
7. The Merry Widow (Erich Von Stroheim)
John Gilbert carries this fine film which has much of the Von Stroheim style even if the notorious director hated it. Weak link is Mae Murray.
6. Ben Hur : A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo)
Not a huge fan of religious epics but the action sequences in the silent version of Ben Hur are hard to beat : the shipboard scenes and the chariot race are more impressive than the sound remake. The movie also works better because it identifies its link with Christ and the bible early on rather than tagging it on at the end. The nativity prologue is well done and helps the story make more sense. Ramon Novarro is fine in the title role though isn’t as good as Heston, Francis X Bushman is an excellent Massalla (or Messalla I think he’s called here). Some moments of dated overdone silent acting but overall an impressive spectacle, the special effects are also better than the 1959 version which is quite an achievement.
5. The Freshman (Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor)
This film has problems for me in its resolution : the message of conformity dates it. Other than that though this is probably the most fun movie of 1925 one of Harold Lloyd’s very best films and one of the biggest box office hits of the Twenties. The gag sequences are among the comedian’s finest particularly the Fall Frolic sequence with the collapsing tuxedo which must be one of the funniest and most brilliantly timed reels in film history.
4. The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian)
Maybe not Lon Chaney’s greatest performance but definitely the one that made the most impact with that incredibly thrilling unmasking scene. Chaney makes the other actors in this look like they are still acting in Edison two-reelers but his Phantom makes the movie unmissable.
3. The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
The influence of the montage style of this movie has been extensive from Hitchcock to TV advertising. It is certainly not a movie that touches the heart but having only seen it on VHS before when I bought the DVD I was immediately impressed by the cinemotography and not just in the famed Odessa Steps sequence. Not an easy watch or incredibly entertaining but as a piece of cinema unforgettable and practically flawless.
2. The Big Parade (King Vidor)
The perfect Hollywood romance of the Twenties and also a great anti-war epic. Just as telling in its battle scenes as All Quiet on the Western Front : director Vidor watched completely silent film of a funeral march and had the soldiers march through Bellal Wood with the same deathly pace. The men kept in time with a metronome, the result is a haunting sequence. John Gilbert is perfect giving a superb performance as an ordinary GI.
1. The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
Chaplin once said that this film is the one he wished to be remembered for and he got his wish : it is generally considered his finest work. The combination of the comedy with the privations of the Alaskan gold rush makes for some classic moments such as the scene where Charlie and Mack Swain eat their own shoes. There was also of course the dance of the rolls. Georgia Hale made a great leading lady probably Charlie’s best.
Also recommended :
A few movies just missed out on the list but deserve a mention and are worth seeking out. They follow roughly in order of entertainment value and historical interest :
The Lost World (Harry Hoyt)
This movie isn’t memorable for its acting though it is no worse than many fantasy films later on. It is important as a precursor mainly to King Kong (1933) as Willis O’Brien brought the dinosaurs to life.
The Unholy Three (Todd Browning)
I’m not a huge fan of the oddball but I think this is the best of the Chaney-Browning collaborations certainly much better than the creaky talkie remake.
Go West
Another charming Keaton feature with Buster falling for Brown Eyes the cow.
The Red Kimono
Fascinating movie if a touch preachy and moralistic basically about a fallen woman almost “marked” by wearing a red dress (beautifully brought out in early colour). Really interesting background with the widow of Wallace Reid producing it. Reid was a big silent star who died of drug addiction. His widow proceeded to make a series of crusading socially conscious films. Unfortunately the real Gabrielle (the heroine of the movie) sued the producers, it seemed to me really silly they didn’t change the names !
Tumbleweeds
This was William S. Hart’s final major film. His acting can seem a little stiff today, this movie has a similar plot to Shane but isn’t as engrossing though the land rush sequence was practically duplicated shot for shot in Cimarron (1931).
Only OK or worse (roughly in order of merit)
Don Q Son of Zorro (an hour of dull court intrigue but exciting after that)
Little Annie Rooney (Mary appears to have wandered into an Our Gang comedy : much too comedic early on, blunts the seriousness later)
The Plastic Age (not enough Clara Bow in standard college comedy, try to spot Clark Gable)
Riders of the Purple Sage (standard Tom Mix western)
The Monster
The Wizard of Oz (weird version with Larry Semon and Oliver Hardy)
Yet to see
Joyless Street
Lady Windemere’s Fan
Master of the House
The Pleasure Garden
AWARDS
Of course there weren’t Oscars in 1925 but these are my choices nevertheless :
Best Director: Sergei Eisenstein (Strike!, Potemkin)
Best Actor: John Gilbert (The Big Parade)
Best Actress: Georgia Hale (The Gold Rush)
Best Supporting Actor: Mack Swain (The Gold Rush)
Best Supporting Actress: Louise Dresser (The Eagle)
Best Original Screenplay: The Gold Rush
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ben Hur - A Tale of the Christ
Best Cinematography: The Battleship Potemkin
Best Editing: The Battleship Potemkin
Best Art Direction: The Phantom of the Opera
Best Costumes: The Phantom of the Opera
King Kong (2005)
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy , add a comment
The critics were pretty positive about Peter Jackson latest big blockbuster hot on the heels of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I feel I will always have something of a bias in favour of the 1933 version but I have to say next to Lord of the Rings, King Kong (2005) is very disappointing. I expected more thrills from Jackson and better special effects maybe one day he will become a victim of his previous success and find it hard to top it : has that day come already ?
It is very tempting to make comparisons with other movies and I genuinely tried to view the new King Kong on its merits as a movie. Problem is if you are familar with the original as ever with remakes there are scenes stolen and allusions made which make it practically impossible. Not that the new Kong is a terribly bad film : certainly by the standards of an average adventure film it works pretty well. Yes it beats the original with the effects and the time period as I expected is well captured. A minor niggle it seemed odd though welcome to use Al Jolson on the soundtrack singing I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World : a song written in the 1920s, a recording made in the 40s yet the movie is set in 1933. Go figure ?
The first and most fundamental problem with the film as I feared is its length. In theory filling out the characters and giving them a background so we can invest more emotion in their experiences is a good one. Unfortunately the details Jackson fills in don’t add anything to the movie and don’t make the characters’ actions any more logical. Overblown is a good description I think : it is an attempt to make the movie more worthy make it more than a typical monster film which just plays as boring.
Why for instance do we need to know Denham is running away from creditors ? In the main I don’t like the way he is characterised here at all, Jack Black doesn’ t seem right in the part. I don’t remember Robert Armstrong’s rogue being quite as blackhearted as this.I also feel the same about Adrien Brody who was great in The Pianist but appears out of place here. In the original Driscoll is just an ordinary seaman here he is transformed into a playwright. Why ? To make the film longer and more worthy and in the end less fun.
Once we’re through the first hour the fun should begin when we reach Skull Island. There are some good moments true : the only really frightening bit for me was the sequence where they are attacked by giant sucker monsters and insects : obviously a tribute to the excised giant spiders scene in the original movie. I don’t really know why but the CGI dinosaurs failed to impress me though we have a few exciting moments with close encounters with T Rex jaws Jurassic park style. It reminded me a lot of that movie actually : Jurassic Park has those moments which make you leap out of your seat every time you see it, didn’t see many of those here. It all in the main seemed old hat : a good example of a botched action scene was a stampede of huge dinosaurs chasing our heroes but most of the time they just seemed to get in each other’s way.
What about Kong you ask ? Well yes he looks pretty good but I don’t know whether it was the way he was photographed he appeared at times smaller than his 1933 counterpart. The first time he appears in the original is justly famous in long side shot approaching Fay Wray here we get weird close ups of big long furry arms. Kong’s battle with the T-Rex in the original is great too and it is well reproduced here eventually but first Jackson overdoes it with Kong battling three at once. This just came across as confusing and lacked impact. Another good shot occurs later in New York when we see Kong and Ann Darrow in a street level shot.
That brings me to probably my biggest criticism of this version. It plays up the beauty and the beast aspect of the story too much. In the original Kong falls for Ann as he does here but she tries to get away from him. Here Ann tries on a few occasion to stay with him : she jumps on his back, finds contentment lying in his arms ! In New York she even gives herself up to him. Yes the girl is meant to feel sorry for him but this is surely stretching things a bit too far. When the airplanes are guinning him down : she cries out to them not to do it ! I mean what future does she envisage in which she is forever chased by a giant ape or is she content to be his bride ? What about all the people killed on the island ? The secret of the original was the beauty and the beast theme was a subtext here it is emphasised with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Kong’s death is nothing as well. He just drops off the Empire State no music, nothing silence ; where is Max Steiner when you need him ?
So not in the same ball park as the original I would say. It looks better and the acting is maybe a bit better but it is less fun. Yes they had to reimagine the film for an audience of 2005 but the decisions made to my mind in the main are the wrong ones. I’ll be quite generous considering some of the special effects and the action scenes and Naomi Watts is quite good as Ann : (2 stars out of 5).
The Jolson Story (1946)
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Musical , add a commentThe year 2006 marks the 120th anniversary of Al Jolson’s birth. I’ll be offering reviews of some of his movies in the next few months.
This was the first of two biopics on the life of the legendary entertainer Al Jolson, produced by Columbia in 1946 and 1949. Like Jack Warner of Warner Brothers before him Harry Cohn the head of Columbia was a big Jolson fan. Al was the only actor ever allowed into Cohn’s office at any time, a similar situation happened with Jack Warner after The Jazz Singer.
It wasn’t Cohn’s idea though to do Jolson’s life on film. The original idea was that of newspaper columnist Sydney Skolsky. He went round the big studios and was ridiculed. When Jack Warner heard though that Columbia wanted to do the film he was heartbroken that a film about his idol could be made at any other studio. He tried to get the property but failed.
Jolson wished he had come to terms with Warners when he found out that he wouldn’t be playing himself in the biopic. A sound decision as Al was 60 in 1945 and looked older. Eventually the part went to a little known 30 year old B-movie actor called Larry Parks.
Stephen Longstreet wrote the screenplay of the movie in which he emphasised the theme of this one man’s obsession with his audience and applause. It was really a love story in which Al in the end sacrifices his wife for his audience. To have portrayed all of his matrimonial troubles would have been too complicated so it was decided to concentrate on his third wife Ruby Keeler. Ruby though wouldn’t allow her name to be used in the movie so Al’s wife was called Julie Benson.
Belting out the songs on the soundtrack the old man was singing better than ever. True the story had its sentimental bits but rare in a biopic of the period didn’t shy away from portraying Jolson as a man who couldn’t really be happy outside showbusiness.
The great songs include : Let Me Sing and I’m Happy, Ma Blushin’ Rosie, My Mammy, Swanee, Toot Toot Tootsie, April Showers, California Here I Come, About A Quarter To Nine, Rockabye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody.
The film was a big box-office success and started a whole new career for Jolson on radio and records. (4 stars out of 5)
Classic Movie Years : 1939
Posted by derek in : Lists , add a commentConsidering the number of fine films made I would say 1939 represents the peak of the Hollywood studio system. To me it is the best year for American film. I probably enjoy more films from this year than any other.
Here is my top 10 :
1. Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming)
I love this film. I admit it might not be everyone’s taste : it is a melodramatic love story at its heart but this is one film I never grow tired of. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were really born to play Scarlett and Rhett. It is an incredible film technically : the burning of Atlanta is great and the scene where the camera goes back to reveal all the wounded soldiers is a stunner.
2. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming)
Yes iconic for Judy Garland singing Over the Rainbow and to me the best family movie ever made.
3. Mr Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
I’m a sentimentalist at heart which is probably why I love Capra’s work. This is one of his best : a great performance from Stewart.
4. Stagecoach (John Ford)
Another great film that established the quality sound western. Wonderful entrance for John Wayne too.
5. La Regle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game)
Renoir’s film isn’t as accessible or as good as La Grande Illusion but still is incredibly clever and thought-provoking.
6. The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh)
Best film of the Thirties’ gangster cycle with superb final confrontation between Cagney and Bogart.
7. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)
Garbo’s best performance enlivens this excellent comedy full of wonderful dialogue.
8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle)
A quality production which is better than the 1923 silent version. Laughton
is a memorable hunchback.
9. Destry Rides Again (George Marshall)
A film that has grown on me in recent years : Stewart and Dietrich make a fine team.
10. Goodbye Mr Chips (Sam Wood)
Very sentimental but fine acting from Donat as the schoolmaster.
Other fine films from 1939 :
Dodge City (Michael Curtiz) (Errol Flynn does his Wyatt Earp movie, entertaining stuff in lush Technicolor)
The Four Feathers (Zoltan Korda) (best British movie of the year)
Beau Geste (William Wellmam) (great action film with Brian Donlevy particularly memorable as a sadistic sergeant)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Alfred L Werker) (best of the Rathbone-Bruce series for me)
Stanley and Livingstone (Otto Brower and Henry King)
Young Mr Lincoln (John Ford)
Babes In Arms (Busby Berkeley) (Not quite the best of the Garland-Rooney backstagers but fun)
Good not great :
Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks actioner disappointed me slightly though worth watching)
Dark Victory (Bette Davis, a little heavy on the syrup)
Rose of Washington Square (Alice Faye effectively playing Fanny Brice with Tyrone Power though Al Jolson walks away with the movie)
At the Circus (not bad from the Marxes though fades next to their previous work)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (lacks pace to me)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Each Dawn I Die (script could be better)
Wuthering Heights (heavy melodrama)
Drums Along the Mohawk (standard western though beautifully photographed)
The Little Princess (Shirley Temple doesn’t do a lot of singing but it is a handsome production)
Only OK or worse
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
The Flying Deuces (some fun but really for Laurel and Hardy completists)
Made for Each Other (uneasy film starts well but then becomes very depressing)
The Women
Gunga Din (I can’t engage with the characters)
Jamaica Inn
Yet to see
Daybreak
Of Mice and Men
The Rains Came
AWARDS
Best Director: Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz)
Best Actor: James Stewart (Mr Smith Goes To Washington)
Best Actress: Vivien Leigh (Gone with the Wind)
Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Mitchell (Stagecoach, GWTW, Mr Smith, Hunchback, OAHWs)
Best Supporting Actress: Margaret Hamilton
Best Original Screenplay: Mr Smith Goes To Washington
Best Adapted Screenplay: Gone with the Wind
Best Cinematography: Gone with the Wind
Best Editing: Gone with the Wind
Best Art Direction: Gone with the Wind
Best Costumes: Gone with the Wind
Best Score : Gone with the Wind
Best Song : Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz)