You’ll Never Get Rich is the first of two films that Rita Hayworth made with Fred Astaire. Although Hayworth was gradually getting bigger and bigger roles throughout 1939 through 1941, this was first time she got to combine acting with her first and truest talent of dancing. Hayworth’s parents were a popular dancing team billed [...]
What can be said about His Girl Friday that has not already been said a thousand times over? The dialogue by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur was at the time the best ever written for the screen, and that claim probably still holds true today. For the first time in Hollywood history, the [...]
By the time the Blondie series got to its fifth installment, Columbia most have realized that they were on a winning streak, and started to pour some more resources into the films, at the same time trying to to bring the films out as quickly as possible. Blondie On a Budget seems to have had [...]
It is a busy week for me where I live, in Tokyo. It is Japan Fashion Week now, and I am out covering multiple fashion shows every day. What better way to unwind after a long day than some ’30s escapist entertainment. Dagwood losses his job (again), Blondie goes to see the boss to get [...]
With the forth film in the film in the Blondie series, it is clear that the producers felt confident that little Larry Simms, who played Baby Dumpling, was getting old enough to remember longer lines, and this film is centered mostly around him. Blondie is struggling to teacher her son the alphabet over breakfast and [...]
By the third film in the Blondie Series, the producers must have realized they were in a peculiar situation. In order to milk the popularity of the series for all it was worth, they had to deliver a recognizable product, and so in each installment there are a number of common plot points. Dagwood makes [...]
After seeing the lovely Rita Hayworth in Blondie on a Budget a while ago, I wanted to see more of her films, and decided to go back to the beginning, or at least near enough to the beginning. In 1939, Hayworth had already appeared in nearly two dozen movies, under her real name Margarita Cansino, [...]
I am not really sure why, but I got my hands on a big chunk of the series of 28 films that were based on the Blondie comic strip between 1938 and 1950. I thought I would watch the first one or two installments and leave it at that, expecting that the quality would quickly [...]
Holiday is a gem of a film which is not seen or appreciated nearly enough. Although not as widely available today as The Philadelphia Story (1940) or as celebrated as Bringing Up Baby (1938), Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are perhaps best paired in this, the third or their four films together. Grant plays free-thinking, [...]
A Lady for a Day seems to offer the perfect sentimental material for Frank Capra’s brand of filmmaking. An elderly woman in Depression-hit New York maintains a complex ruse with the aid of hotel porter to make it seem as if she is living in suite in the luxury hotel, while she is actually scraping [...]
“Do I look like a sex murderer to you? Can you imagine me creeping around London, strangling all those women with ties? That's ridiculous... For a start, I only own two.”
Costume Design: Robert Kalloch
You’ll Never Get Rich (1941)
You’ll Never Get Rich is the first of two films that Rita Hayworth made with Fred Astaire. Although Hayworth was gradually getting bigger and bigger roles throughout 1939 through 1941, this was first time she got to combine acting with her first and truest talent of dancing. Hayworth’s parents were a popular dancing team billed [...]
His Girl Friday (1940)
What can be said about His Girl Friday that has not already been said a thousand times over? The dialogue by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur was at the time the best ever written for the screen, and that claim probably still holds true today. For the first time in Hollywood history, the [...]
Blondie on a Budget (1940)
By the time the Blondie series got to its fifth installment, Columbia most have realized that they were on a winning streak, and started to pour some more resources into the films, at the same time trying to to bring the films out as quickly as possible. Blondie On a Budget seems to have had [...]
Blondie Meets the Boss (1939)
It is a busy week for me where I live, in Tokyo. It is Japan Fashion Week now, and I am out covering multiple fashion shows every day. What better way to unwind after a long day than some ’30s escapist entertainment. Dagwood losses his job (again), Blondie goes to see the boss to get [...]
Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939)
With the forth film in the film in the Blondie series, it is clear that the producers felt confident that little Larry Simms, who played Baby Dumpling, was getting old enough to remember longer lines, and this film is centered mostly around him. Blondie is struggling to teacher her son the alphabet over breakfast and [...]
Blondie Takes a Vacation (1939)
By the third film in the Blondie Series, the producers must have realized they were in a peculiar situation. In order to milk the popularity of the series for all it was worth, they had to deliver a recognizable product, and so in each installment there are a number of common plot points. Dagwood makes [...]
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
After seeing the lovely Rita Hayworth in Blondie on a Budget a while ago, I wanted to see more of her films, and decided to go back to the beginning, or at least near enough to the beginning. In 1939, Hayworth had already appeared in nearly two dozen movies, under her real name Margarita Cansino, [...]
Blondie (1938)
I am not really sure why, but I got my hands on a big chunk of the series of 28 films that were based on the Blondie comic strip between 1938 and 1950. I thought I would watch the first one or two installments and leave it at that, expecting that the quality would quickly [...]
Holiday (1938)
Holiday is a gem of a film which is not seen or appreciated nearly enough. Although not as widely available today as The Philadelphia Story (1940) or as celebrated as Bringing Up Baby (1938), Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are perhaps best paired in this, the third or their four films together. Grant plays free-thinking, [...]
Lady for a Day (1933)
A Lady for a Day seems to offer the perfect sentimental material for Frank Capra’s brand of filmmaking. An elderly woman in Depression-hit New York maintains a complex ruse with the aid of hotel porter to make it seem as if she is living in suite in the luxury hotel, while she is actually scraping [...]