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, [...]
As I continue to go through every Bette Davis film I can get my hands on, I finally come to Jezebel, one of her most famous roles right after All About Eve, which cemented her reputation as a big star at the time. My expectations were high, but I found this isn’t really among the [...]
Irving Thalberg the MGM wunderkind producer who shaped A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races and proved that the Marx Brothers could have wide appeal, died suddenly in 1936 during the production of the second film. Groucho later recalled “after Thalberg’s death, my interest in the movies waned. I continued to [...]
Sex Madness was a brazen attempt to skirt the film production codes that came into effect in 1930, and then in a much stricter version under Willie Hays in 1936. By creating an educational cautionary tale and including some gross out shots of a scab-covered syphilis victim, the producers where able to include implications of [...]
I was really expecting a lot from this film. After all, I had found a ‘30s film that I hadn’t seen yet, and it was not some complete obscure title, but something staring Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers. The cast also has Charles Coburn, who I found quite funny as Marilyn Monroe’s admirer in Monkey [...]
I never thought I would see a Frank Capra film that I didn’t love. It is not that I hated You Can’t Take It with You or even disliked it, but with a cast including James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore and Jean Arthur, I was expecting a lot and was slightly disappointed. Capra’s usual writer Robert [...]
Young in Heart is odd for a late ’30s film. While the film production code dictated that criminal always have to be punished by the end of the movie, this story focuses on a whole family of professional criminals who change their ways and find redemption. It seems the screenwriters were able to skirt the [...]
Year in Film: 1938
Blondie
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
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, [...]
Jezebel
As I continue to go through every Bette Davis film I can get my hands on, I finally come to Jezebel, one of her most famous roles right after All About Eve, which cemented her reputation as a big star at the time. My expectations were high, but I found this isn’t really among the [...]
Room Service
Irving Thalberg the MGM wunderkind producer who shaped A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races and proved that the Marx Brothers could have wide appeal, died suddenly in 1936 during the production of the second film. Groucho later recalled “after Thalberg’s death, my interest in the movies waned. I continued to [...]
Sex Madness
Sex Madness was a brazen attempt to skirt the film production codes that came into effect in 1930, and then in a much stricter version under Willie Hays in 1936. By creating an educational cautionary tale and including some gross out shots of a scab-covered syphilis victim, the producers where able to include implications of [...]
Vivacious Lady
I was really expecting a lot from this film. After all, I had found a ‘30s film that I hadn’t seen yet, and it was not some complete obscure title, but something staring Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers. The cast also has Charles Coburn, who I found quite funny as Marilyn Monroe’s admirer in Monkey [...]
You Can’t Take It with You
I never thought I would see a Frank Capra film that I didn’t love. It is not that I hated You Can’t Take It with You or even disliked it, but with a cast including James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore and Jean Arthur, I was expecting a lot and was slightly disappointed. Capra’s usual writer Robert [...]
Young in Heart
Young in Heart is odd for a late ’30s film. While the film production code dictated that criminal always have to be punished by the end of the movie, this story focuses on a whole family of professional criminals who change their ways and find redemption. It seems the screenwriters were able to skirt the [...]