L'Atalante (1934)

Here is perhaps one of the greatest wedding processions we could ever hope to see. Buster Keaton is more outrageously funny in Seven Chances, but this one is solemn, and somehow still funny in it's own way. And that's what is most striking about L'Atalante (which also serves as the name of the boat of choice). This film seems so serious and strait-laced you might say, and yet it brims with comedy. It's the type of everyday comedy that makes us laugh even now. Funny looking characters, odd voices, a plethora of cats all over the place. There's no way for that to get lost in translation and it remains quirky and engaging 80 years later.

It also happens to be a beautiful film exemplified by a newly-wedded bride walking the prow of a boat with the fog billowing around her. Or perhaps it's two lovers embracing passionately and a smile bursting on the face of the woman. It's so visceral, so engaging in its displays of love, energy, and emotion. In this way it brings to mind other love stories of the age like Sunrise, It Happened One Night, and certainly the early works of Jean Renoir. Except the thing here is that director Jean Vigo never made another film after L'Atalante. He entered bad health even during filming and died soon after in his early 1930s, but he left behind a masterpiece.

In short the story revolves around four main characters living life together on a boat named L'Atalante. Jean is the captain and groom who has picked a beautiful  wife named Juliette who is going to share his existence on the sea. His first mate is the weathered and scruffy Pere Jules. He might have a rough exterior, but he and his cabin boy are full of bumbling and buffoonery that endears them to all.

For the two lovebirds Paris is the enchanting destination for a fantastic makeshift honeymoon, but it also proves to test their relationship from the get go since Jean is extremely jealous and a street peddler openly flirts with Juliette. It's a tragic turn in their love story which leads to Juliette looking for a way home and Jean sinking into a state of depression aboard his boat. That's what makes their ultimate reunion all the sweeter.

Thus, L'Atalante blends a timeless topic like love with little scenes of magic that bubble up from the within these scenes. Whether it is Juliette walking the streets window shopping or Pere Jules giving a lens into his past with all the souvenirs he has accrued over the years. Without a doubt he was my favorite character. I have never quite seen anything like him.

4.5/5 Stars

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

Hailing from a year laden with numerous American classics, Young Mr. Lincoln is undoubtedly overlooked in deference to other titles like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Even John Ford's own Stagecoach starring John Wayne overshadowed this autobiographical work headed by Henry Fonda. Then the next year they came out with The Grapes of Wrath and that title garnered praise for both. But again it seems like most have forgotten about Young Mr. Lincoln.

It really is a shame, because this feels like a quintessential Ford film and Henry Fonda gives an iconic turn as one of the great historical giants of all time. Except instead of focusing on his major accomplishments, trials, or fatal death, this story contents itself with a simpler story. The focus is the fledgling law career of Abraham Lincoln, who back in 1857 is only a lanky country boy with a hankering for learning. He sees tragedy at a young age when people pass away around him and yet out of those formative years rises a man who is wise beyond his years, because he understands his fellow man and cares deeply about justice.

Lincoln is hardly a lawyer of any repute and he seems hardly a political figure compared to the likes of the great Stephen Douglas, but the people respect him because he wins them with his common sense and homespun witticisms. Aside from his ubiquitous top hat, he willingly judges pie eating contests, and play the Jew's harp with feet reclined at his desk.  One of his dear admirers in the young socialite Mary Todd who takes an immense liking to him. He's the kind of figure that the elite and common folk alike can truly respect.

So when two brother's are accused of murdering another man after a fight one night, it is Mr. Lincoln who avoids a lynching and appeals to the morals of the locals. He in turn promises the mother of the boys that he will do his very best to win their freedom and he does all he can to gain her trust.

When the trial begins he carefully picks the jury and faces off against a venerable prosecutor with much greater experience than himself. The mother of the accused saw the squabble, but she cannot bear to implicate her sons. Lincoln pleads on her behalf.  It also looks like the key witness and friend of the deceased man will put a seal on the case, but young Mr. Lincoln is not done yet.

Thus, the film ends and Lincoln is most certainly on the rise, but we get to imagine his future knowingly on our own because none of that length of the story is told. In that way it's rather interesting to juxtapose Ford's film with Spielberg's more recent biography Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. They represent different generations of film making, because the latter film takes a monumental moment in history, the passing of the 13th amendment, and places a magnifying glass to it. Focusing on all the individuals involved and it is certainly going for an amount of period realism, starting with the impressive performance by Day-Lewis as our 16th president.

Young Mr. Lincoln is a lot simpler, because it does not need to focus on the highlights. It takes as great of an interest in Abe's origin story so to speak. On his part Henry Fonda, plays the role wonderfully using his mannerisms and plain speaking delivery to give a homey quality to Lincoln. He's believable, but in a different way than Day-Lewis. It's not better or worse necessarily, just different. That being said, Young Mr. Lincoln deserves a place among the exulted classics of that legendary year of 1939. Hopefully it will continue to receive the respect that it deserves, because it a moving and surprisingly very funny film. Probably in the way Abraham Lincoln was.

4.5/5 Stars

People on Sunday (1930)

One of the last German silent films was People on Sunday a modest project from a group of young men. Our stars are in young professionals in real life and only amateur actors who did not quit their day job. They only can film on the weekends and that's how we end up with People on Sunday!It takes on a faux documentary style as it follows the lives of four individuals as these meet one another and then spend a pleasant Sunday afternoon together. Their in certainly a breezy playfulness to the film as the two men and two women spend time frolicking at the beach and reclining in the sun. They share laughs, while eating and listening to records. It quality fun and there seems to be a general innocence to their behavior that while sometimes rude is all in good fun.

This is in fact a film of late Weimar Republic, without the cloud of Hitler's Nazi regime hanging over the country (not until 1933). It stands in sharp contrast to later works or documentaries, because People on Sunday is seemingly free and wholly unrestrained by ideology or prejudice.

We should undoubtedly be grateful for this historical piece of New Objectivity cinema and the reasons are twofold. First, since the film essentially works as a documentary it gives us a wonderfully clear picture of what life was like in the world of Berlin. There are continuous shots of the city streets, passing vehicles, and people making their daily rounds. One especially memorable moment occurs when the story takes a short aside to afford time for a montage of faces. The camera slowly captures face after face providing a sample of all the individuals who walk these streets. They transcend time and space because of their humanity, their mundane quality, and they have the same lightness of our main characters.

When we look at the names behind People on Sunday it is almost staggering to acknowledge these men who were formerly unknowns.

As directors you have Robert and Curt Siodmak. Your main writer is the great Billy Wilder. As cinematographer you have another great in Fred Zinnemmann, and finally production was helped by the B-picture master Edgar Ulmer. Due to the rise of the Nazis all of these figures would end up emigrating to Hollywood and the rest was history. In many ways we are indebted to them because they helped form some of the great American classics and you can already see them honing their craft. The images are visually interesting and their is even a sense of humor that we could seemingly attribute to Wilder. It would only get better from then on.

If I'm not mistaken there are several scores that have been used to accompany the film, but I did really enjoy the Czech film orchestra, because it added a lot to this otherwise silent picture. Hope you enjoy this unassuming picture as much as I did.

4/5 Stars

Stage Door (1937)

Watching Stage Door was one of the pleasures of film, because its an unassuming classic that very easily could be overshadowed by other films. It's main stars are Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn who both arguably have numerous films more well known than this one.

However, this story about a boarding house for aspiring stage actresses is a light piece of sassy fun while still finding moments for poignancy. Rogers is a cynical dancer named Jean and she is not too pleased to be getting a new roommate. The last one moved elsewhere after constant fighting. But the new girl, Terry Randall, is different. She is from a well to do family, but she is pursuing a career in acting so that she might stretch herself.

The other girls looks with an air of contempt thanks to her fine clothes and pristine manners. She doesn't fit the mold of many of the other struggling actresses looking for their big break. Many spend their evenings trying to grab hold of a sugar daddy such as famed theatrical producer Anthony Powell (Adolph Menjou). Several of the girl have their eyes on him as they try and land a role in his next big production.

Kay Hamilton is the most well-liked girl in the house and arguably one of the most gifted performers. She opened the year before in a production that won her rave reviews, however a year later she has yet to get another break and she is running out of funds. Powell's show is her last big chance. Thus, when Powell cancels last minute for a trivial reason, Kay faints and an irate Terry bursts into his office to confront him. He is initially turned off, but then he chooses her for the lead role of the upcoming Enchanted April.

Although the girls were beginning to warm to Terry, Jean has trouble forgiving her as tragedy strikes. In fact, Terry almost refuses to go on stage altogether and yet she goes out and gives an emotional performance that is hailed by critics. However, in the end Terry and Jean are reconciled which is far more important than any type of fanfare.

In many ways Gregory La Cava's Stage Door feels in some ways similar to The Women (1939). Both films have casts with women in the primary roles and the stories are at times volatile, with so much drama and zinging comebacks. Some of this was courtesy of the supporting cast which included such legendary comediennes and Lucille Ball and Eve Arden. Ann Miller is even present, but at its core Stage Door is Ginger and Katharine's film. Did Just curious, did Fred and Spencer ever do a film like this?

4/5 Stars

You Only Live Once (1937)

There are two types of lover-on-the-run narratives. There's the Bonnie and Clyde/Gun Crazy extravaganza full of shoot-outs and bloodshed. Then you have the more sensitive approach of a film like They Drive By Night. You Only Live Once fits this second category thanks to two bolstering performances by Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sydney. Fonda is forever known for his plain, naturalistic delivery full of humanity. He has that quality as 3 time loser Eddie Taylor certainly, but he also injects the role with somewhat uncharacteristic rage. In many ways he has a right to be angry at a world that so easily writes him off and is so quick to pronounce guilt. There is very little attempt to rehabilitate the reprobate and Taylor is an indictment of that.

Secretary Jo Graham (Sylvia Sydney) is positively beaming the day they are releasing her boyfriend Taylor, because he is finally getting the second chance he deserves. A glorious marriage follows soon after until reality breaks into the lovers paradise. Few people aside from Father Dolan and a few forward thinkers are willing to give Taylor grace. He is prematurely fired from his job and has no way to make the payments on the house that his wife has been sprucing up for him. Adding insult to injury a brazen bank robbery is committed which he is wrongly accused of. It's back to the clink and then the electric chair.

Jo is beside herself and Taylor is angered at the way the law deals with him. This justice is the most unjust imaginable and he is about to pay the price. But Jo desperately gets him help and he tries to make a break for it.

That's what makes a wire proclaiming his innocence all the more ironic, because he will have none of it. He takes a man's life and now his acquittal goes down the drain as quickly as he got it, because he has murder to his name. Eddie and Jo go off on the road together looting banks and surviving the best they can with their newborn son. This is not two joy riding youngsters trying to get rich without an honest days work. Fritz Lang develops a more complex story with people who tried to live by the rules and found they were dealt an unfair hand.

As one of Lang's earliest works in America, you can see some remnants of German Expressionism here with foggy clouds of mist engulfing the screen at times. His tale also has an interesting ambiguity suggesting that crime is not always black and white. Perhaps it has less to say about the moral degenerates or corrupt individuals in our society and more about the faulty structures that our justice system often get built around. It's mind-boggling to think that this film came soon after the Depression meaning the bitter taste of those years was still fresh in peoples' mouths. Nevertheless this film is an interesting crime-filled character study.

4/5 Stars

Lost Horizon (1937)

Certainly this is not the most well known or the best film of Capra. It is in fact quite different from a lot of his filmography. That is not to say that it is not an enjoyable film about a man who finds a little piece of Utopia called Shangri-La. Ronald Colman was certainly a likable fellow in the lead role and Jane Wyatt was pleasant during the time she was on screen.

What I really enjoyed in this film was the quibbling and bickering of Thomas Mitchell and Edward Everett Horton's characters. These are two tremendous character actors who represent all that was great about the stock characters of Hollywood's Golden Age. They are so recognizable and though not the stars they seemingly steal their scenes. Because some of this film was lost, parts were understandably choppy since there was no visual aside from photos to go with the dialogue during certain moments. Despite this, the film is an enjoyable 1930s fantasy.

4/5 Stars

Love Affair (1939)

Imagine meeting someone through a porthole, that's what happens in this film when a gust of wind sends Michel Marnet's letter flying. The lady who is kind enough to return it is the friendly Terry McKay. The two acquaintances enjoy each others company and strike up a friendship in the few days before they dock in New York. Both of them have fiancees waiting for them. They begin seeing a lot of each other, but they also start to notice that the other passengers are looking on.

One day they make a stop and Michel pays a quick visit to his grandmother. Terry agrees to come along and strikes up a fast friendship with the elderly woman who really likes her. As they get close to New York Michel and Terry agree to meet in 6 months at the top of the Empire State Building. By then he will know if he can carry a job to support her. So it goes.

The 6 months finally passes and the time of the meeting arrives. An excited Terry rushes off to "get married" but tragedy strikes. Michel waits all alone and she never shows. For a long while they lose all contact as Terry recuperates and Michel continues to paint while nursing a broken heart. When he finally tracks her down, they share a slightly awkward introduction. In a marvelous sequence Michel tells her about how "he" missed the meeting and apologizes for what "she" must have gone through. She knows what happened now, but Terry still will not tell him what happened to her, because she did not want to be a burden. In a Eureka moment Michel figures it out and goes to embrace his love. As she did the whole film, Terry accepts the hardship and meets it with a joyful heart.

Love Affair is just that but it fails to lower itself to uninhibited passion and romance without any substance of character. Its leads are not that superficial; they are better than that and certainly more complex. In all honesty I never have been a big fan of Charles Boyer. I see his appeal as a suave, debonair Frenchmen with an accent, but he never did anything for me. Here I saw him as more than a playboy. He filled that expectation at first, but the scenes with his kindly grandmother and then when he thinks Terry have forgotten him, show a softer, more vulnerable side.

I do not quite know why but Irene Dunne is especially enjoyable to watch. Whether it her skill as a comedienne with comic timing or the expressions on her face, I find her endearing every moment on the screen. She makes me smile just as she smiles. In many ways she reminds me of another actress of the 1930s, Jean Arthur. However, Arthur I know far better because of films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. With Dunne I have seen very little and yet I have been so impressed by her. Love Affair was another film that proved her appeal to me.

Furthermore, Leo McCarey does not get enough credit, because he is a great director with some great films to his name like The Awful Truth. He would later remake Love Affair as An Affair to Remember, which was a success in itself.

4/5 Stars

A Chump At Oxford (1940)

This short comedy film has Laurel and Hardy scrounging around for work and they masquerade as a maid and butler in a well-to-do home. As expected they cause loads of trouble and skip out. Next they are a pair of street sweepers who come upon some luck while on break. They unwittingly capture a bank robber and they are soon rewarded with  a free education at Oxford. There they are met with a group of haughty Oxford snobs who cannot wait to mess with the new arrivals. The ensuing moments include getting lost in a maze, dizzy spells, run-ins with the Dean, and a chance encounter with Oxford athletic hero Lord Paddington, who shares an uncanny resemblance to Stan. Despite all the ups and downs, Stan and Ollie make it through and they succeed in making this comedy quite fun.

3.5/5 Stars

The Ghost Breakers (1940)

You have two great leads in Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard for this horror comedy film. It is not the best film of either of them by a long shot and it is not much to write home about but if you like the stars you will probably get some laughs out of this one.

It is a dark and stormy night in Manhattan when Mary (Goddard) learns that she is the new owner of a supposedly haunted island. Larry (Hope) on his part is a radio man who is soon on the run from mobsters after a comment he made on air. After a shooting Larry finds himself face to face with Mary and she helps him out of a pickle. Soon she boards her ship heading for her island and he has no choice but to tag along. There everything comes to fruition and the Ghost Breaksers take on the haunts and the dangers of Castillo Maldito. This is a good example of the horror comedies of the 1930s and 40s. Hope was better with Crosby and Goddard was better with Chaplin, but this film certainly has some hilarity.

3.5/5 Stars

The Women (1939) - Updated

Here is a film full of personalities. In fact there is so much personality that it nearly bowls you over with its impact and frenetic force.

In the center of it all is Norma Shearer who is the respectable socialite who is losing her husband to another woman. Joan Crawford is the gold digging woman who is as detestable as ever. Rounding it out is the equally repulsive gossip played to a tee by Rosalind Russell. There is the ever innocent Joan Fontaine and a spunky divorcee played by Paulette Goddard. Throw in numerous other memorable women and you have a cast that completely overwhelms, but in a good way.

Husbands and lovers seem to being switching hands so easily and the whole film is focused on the women who are swapping them. It begins with Mary Haines' husband only to continually get more complicated as more gossip is divulged and mud is thrown. Not to mention a few angry fists and slaps to go with the caustic words.

There is a lot to admire about this film, because it does what it set out to do very well. It creates some empathy, some laughs, and yes, a whole lot of loathing.

However, as I contemplated the film I realized although the Women is from 1939 and the clothes often seem laughable, the people and issues in the film often seem all too real. Divorce hits close to many homes literally and gossip certainly has not gone instinct. Thus, despite the passage of time, in many ways this film still feels fresh and relevant today.

4/5 Stars

Our Relations (1936)

How can you get sick of Laurel & Hardy? Maybe it's possible but I always enjoy coming back to them because they are easy on the eyes and the mind. They have the mayhem of the Marx Brothers or The Three Stooges, but they remain endearing more often than not. They may not be as witty as Groucho or as belligerent as Moe and his crew, but they have heart and every "fine mess" they get into is usually a pleasure to watch.

Our Relations is another one of their short features and it borrows its main plot device from the long overused identical twin trope. We have undoubtedly seen it countless times on many a movie and most definitely a TV show. But before I harp on them too much I will give them some slack because it was the 1930s, not 2014. That being said the confusions and mix ups that occur as a result of this situation are a segue to some fun comedy.

The story begins with a strangely well to do Ollie and Stan having a nice time with their wives. It is their two seafaring twins who cause trouble at a bar and holding onto an invaluable ring. They get more than they bargain for having to navigate two angry wives, two angry girls, an angry waiter, an angry sailor, some angry gangsters and the always miffed James Finlayson. Notice I didn't specify which pair of twins, because each set has their share of grief.

It gets difficult telling them apart after awhile as they keep playing "the shell game" and our only cues are their ties and some theme music that tips us off.  Most definitely this is a fun romp with our two...four heroes. The facial expressions of Stan Laurel always crack me up (including his sniveling) and Ollie is forever a klutz with the help of his bumbling buddy.

It culminated with the wonderfully hilarious scene in the cement that was the goofy apex of a solid Laurel and Hardy film. If you want culture or high brow humor please go somewhere else. As for me and myself I will continue to enjoy what these two men gifted us all those years ago. It also had a moral to the story. There is nothing quite as important as our relations. Scratch that. Maybe it was just made for us to laugh and there is nothing much wrong with that.

3.5/5 Stars

Block-Head (1938)

There are short films and then there are feature films. This is your typical Laurel and Hardy short feature which falls somewhere in between.

This Hal Roach produced comedy romp pulls its plot from current events such as WWI, big game hunting and Middle American suburban life. But forget that, the most important part is that Laurel and Hardy are up to their usual gags playing their usual selves in this laugh-laden story with a typical bouncy score.

It starts off with a oblivious Stan guarding his trench for over 20 years as the story moves from 1917 in France to the year 1938. Don't question it just accept that Stan is stupid and he has a mountain of ration cans to prove it.

When he finally is brought back to civilization there's one man who especially surprised, his good ol' buddy Oliver who is just about to celebrate his anniversary with his wife.

The friends finally get their reunion at the old soldiers home where Stan is laid up and the fun begins. Because Stan and Ollie are the perfect antithesis and they always lead to the greatest of guffaws.

The laughs continue to spew out whether its Stan's supposedly amputated leg or a truck piled high with dirt. And that's before they even arrive home where they must deal with 13 flights of stairs and the ever present James Finlayson ready to trade some choice words and fists with Ollie.

Ollie also has some marital problems of his own that are complicated by the pretty young wife that lives across the hall. He and Stan manage to do what they do best by completely decimating their house and blowing up their kitchen. The end title card drops as our two heroes gallop away followed by a jealous husband with an elephant gun. Sounds about right.

I dearly hope I never grow tired of Laurel and Hardy, because if I do it will almost feel like I lost just a bit of my humanity. They are often so dumb, so mean to each other and to others, but at their core they are always a lovable duo. By now they are caricatures in appearance and for their buffoonery, but they are also so beloved by the masses. I would like to say even to this day.

Ollie with his fiery temper and bossing of Stan. Stan with his stupidity and often surprising talents (smoking a hand-pipe and pulling down the shadow of a window blind just to name a few). I wish there had been more screen time for Billy Gilbert, but otherwise this is a wholly worthwhile addition to the L & H legacy.

4/5 Stars

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Directed by Lewis Millstone and starring an ensemble cast headed by Lew Ayres, this archetypal anti-war film based on the novel of the same name, begins with a group of school boys during the dawn of WWI. This group of patriotic German youth is hungry for adventure and the glories of war. 

Then they arrive and begin their training which causes them to despise their commanding officer and they also lose some enthusiasm. It gets worse when they head to a combat zone and join a company of veteran soldiers without any food to eat. They finally head to the front and after a day in the trenches their number is fewer. 

Trench warfare proves to be hardly as glamorous as it seems with constant bombardment, rats, lack of food, and most of all the shedding of blood. One of their pals loses his leg and his boots, then slowly more get knocked off or wounded. Now Paul is one of the only ones left but after a bout of hand to hand combat with a French soldier he becomes even more disillusioned. Paul too gets wounded and is sent home on furlough to his family but he finds his friends and family have no concept of the gritty, grimy reality of war. He returns to the lines one more time and a few of his old comrades are still alive. 

However, in a fateful moment Paul reaches out for a butterfly in his trench and just like that he is dead. The last of this school room full of young, naïve boys is now dead or injured. That is the horrible scar left by not only by WWI but any such conflict. 

Despite the fact that all the main German characters are played by Americans, this film has a sharp sense of realism that extends all the way through the film. Even though many of these young actors were unknowns and are not well known today, together they made a powerful ensemble. The themes of this film were so powerful in fact that it was banned in Germany.

5/5 Stars

Nothing Sacred (1937)

Before His Girl Friday (1940) came this other screwball comedy about journalism, the perfect scoop and disception. After getting on the bad side of his boss, newsman Wally Cook (Frederic March) is demoted from the living and forced to write obituaries. It's quite the awful set up and Cook desperately looks for another story to get him in the good graces of the Morning Star's editor.

The perfect new flash has just come up in the form of a woman who is soon going to die of radium poisoning and so Wally Cook goes to meet her. Heading up from New York he ends in the one horse town in Vermont. He meets a lot of unoblidging people whose vocabulary is limited to Yup and Nope. He finally comes across the crying girl who has just left an appointment with a doctor. He comforts the girl cheering her up by promising a trip to the big city where she will be treated like royalty (And he'll get his story). So Hazel Flagg soon becomes the sweetheart of New York with public appearances at Madison Square Gurden, parades, poems, articles and special honors. It's all going according to Cook's plan, the only thing is that Hazel is not actually ill.

That's a wrench in the plan and soon it becomes evident that Cook will look like a cad. To make matters worse he's falling for her and his editor Oliver Stone is all over him. Now he must take part in Hazel's charade despite his annoyance. She too is annoyed and ends the game so the two lovebirds can elope. Still the story of Hazel is given a romanticized ending that the public deserves. Frederic March is decent as the desperate and long suffering journalist. Carole Lombard is her typical light headed, whimsy, high strung, scatterbrained, sniveling self. It proves to be a volatile combination partnered with Ben Hecht's script. The news industry loses a lot of its self-respect for the sake of laughs, because nothing's sacred. Some might be interested to know that it was shot in glorious technicolor and it was the only time Lombard would appear in a technicolor film. She would of course die in a tragic plane crash in 1942.

This film was quite short so the story moved quickly and there were definitely some screwy moments. I am however partial to His Girl Friday and some of the other more well known screwballs.

3.5/5 Stars

The Petrified Forest (1936)

If I dare say this film begins as a rather dull budding love story between a philosophical drifting author (Leslie Howard) and a inquisitive young server (Bette Davis) at a roadside gas station in Arizona. It looks like it's not to be as he is intent on moving on but then comes murderer Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) with his thugs and things heat up a little bit. His arrival brings up some interesting points of contention and Leslie gains some new found conviction. But that's not the half of it.

This film comes from the stage with Bogart reprising his star making role as a gangster. It is often talky and sometimes stagnant but the supporting characters and Bogart have enough personality to at least make it passable and a tad interesting. I was never a great fan of Davis, but I have to admit at least she does not look scary in this one. She's still young and on the rise when this film came out. Leslie Howard is enjoyable with his pleasant delivery but Bogart really lights it up. His glowering face and growling voice are hard to clear from your mind. That's for sure.

The film also has immense commentary on the survival of the fittest, women, the mythical Old West and fascist ideology that are a sign of the times.

3.5/5 Stars

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Here is a retrospective gangster film reminiscing about the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties extending from the post WWI period  of prohibition to the election of FDR.

Two mainstays of the genre including the original gangster James Cagney and hard-boiled Humphrey Bogart star as two men in a group of three soldiers who meet during World War I. In the ensuing years Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) initially has difficulty getting back into society, but after meeting Speakeasy owner Panama Smith (Gladys George) he finds himself climbing the ranks in the bootlegging business. Soon through grit and a ruthless drive Eddie makes good racketeering by utilizing taxis with booze to make it big. 

Through it all Eddie becomes smitten with a young singer he used to know when she was a young girl (Priscilla Lane), except she does not share his affection. Pretty soon his ol' buddy George (Bogart) comes back into the picture, with a some shifting dealings of his own. Eddie practically runs the town now but when the Crash happens he gets pushed out by George and now Jean is off and married to her lawyer beau. Eddie is a washed-up taxi driver still hanging around Panama and he has time to do one last favor for Jean.

This is one of the last great gangster films of the 1930s following in the wake of other Cagney classics like The Public Enemy and Angel with Dirty Faces. Raoul Walsh directs this film and it develops as another dynamic, action packed film with a lot of drama and heart thanks to Cagney and George. It is however different from previous gangster flicks in that it plays out as a history although it keeps the nitty-gritty look of the previous films. Like Angel with Dirty Faces especially, there are also some sentimental moments because Cagney is not a complete scoundrel, just mostly. Not wanting to continue being typecast Cagney took a break from the genre not coming back until White Heat in 1949. He did pretty well for himself during the 1940s though with performances in The Stawberry Blonde and Yankee Doodle Dandy. There was another fellow who did not do too bad in that interim period either, new found leading man Humphrey Bogart.

"What was his business?"
"He used to be a big shot."

4/5 Stars

The Women (1939)

Starring a cast including Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine, this film is all about the lives of these women. Mary is a member of New York high society who is happy with her marriage. However, when her gossipy friends begin to talk about her husband with another women she is hurt. She eventually  files for divorce and while waiting for the conformation in Reno she meets some new friends and is finally able to find a way to get her husband back. Needless to say the ending is happy and a few women get what they deserve. This film had an enjoyable introduction, a sequence in Technicolor, and an all female cast. Most of all it characterizes the various women in this walk of life. Some are kindly, others foolish, and still others are treacherous.

4/5 Stars

Holiday (1938)

Johnny Case (Cary Grant) is a happy go lucky fellow he is crazy in love with the girl of his dreams. He returns to town telling his friends the Potters that he has plans to marry this girl he met 10 days ago at Lake Placid! He is ecstatic and not afraid to show it.

However, he must become acclimated with her family and their lifestyle. Most important is gaining the approval of her sometimes stuffy and always money-minded banking father. Julia Sefton is by all accounts a lovely girl who seems to truly return Johnny's affection. Honestly, though he is not quite used to her type of society. He makes his entrance by arriving through the servant's door and wanders around the stately manor marveling at all the trappings. Doing the rounds he runs into her drunken but genuine brother Ned (Lew Ayres). Then, there is sister Linda (Katharine Hepburn), the so-called black sheep of the family, but her only fault is being an energetic free spirit.

Immediately she and Johnny hit if off and she soon realizes that her sister has a real catch on her hands. The wedding is finally agreed upon by Mr. Seton and a big New Year's Eve Party is thrown much to Linda's chagrin. The night of the big to do there are two parties that take place. Downstairs all the snobs and high society mingle with Julia parading Johnny around. Upstairs is a different matter where the quarantined Linda is eventually joined by the Potters,  Ned and even Johnny.

The little gathering gets quashed and that is not all. Father and daughter are adamant that Johnny work at the bank and make money because that's what any respectful husband would do. They take little heed of Johnny's dream to take a holiday once he has raised enough money to live off of. He just wants to live life free of distractions for awhile but they just do not understand. Finally, Johnny is feeling too restricted by all the obligations to bear it any longer because he simply cannot live that way. Again both father and daughter do not understand. But Julia does and she finally realizes what she must do. It's time to take a holiday.

Here is a formidable trio in Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and director George Cukor. It makes me beg the question how this film has become so overshadowed by Bringing up Baby and The Philadelphia Story. Johnny Case is a wonderfully vibrant role for Grant and his acrobatics alone are worthwhile. Hepburn on her part plays an equally spirited individual but without the scatter-brained or feisty edge that she often carried. Instead she is just a wonderfully sweet free spirit. Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon are an absolute riot and I would love to have friends like them. Lew Ayres role was rather an odd one but both Doris Nolan and Henry Kolker had an adequate amount of stuffiness to pull off their roles. That juxtaposition was necessary for the film to work and it did.

4/5 Stars

City Lights (1931) - Updated

A comedy romance in pantomime. That's just exactly what City Lights is because despite the fact that talkies had been around for approximately 4 years, Chaplin was hesitant to transition his Tramp over to sound. In many ways I can understand why, since the universality of his character would be gone and Chaplin's own voice would give a very different feel to the little man. With his great popularity and artistic control, Chaplin made this film and Modern Times without dialogue. All he used were synchronized sounds and musical scores. As audiences can attest to, it worked out just fine for him.

This film opens with the Tramp in all his glory sleeping on a statue during its public unveiling. He is rudely awakened and shooed off on his way. He drifts down the boulevards finally meeting a lowly flower girl who is blind showing her kindness before moving on. Although I am partial to Paulette Goddard, Virginia Cherrill played the blind girl believably and she is a wonderful love interest for Chaplin's character.

His next acquaintance is a drunken millionaire (Harry Myers) bent on committing suicide. His attempt is unsuccessful partially in thanks to the Tramp. He even gives the man a few positive words as is his custom (Tomorrow the birds will sing, be brave, face life!).

 And there you have it. Chaplin introduced his audience to the two people who would be closest to the little man . The two new chums head to a high society hang out where they nearly get in a fight over everything from a bottle of seltzer to a chair and even the floor show.

The Tramp goes back to the girl and as another act of kindness he purchases her whole basket of flowers for a $10 and continues to masquerade as a high society swing. As the next title card reads, the sober dawn awakens a different man. Thus, The Tramp is initially rejected by his friend from before, but the drunken millionaire is reincarnated once again and they begin a wild rager. The next morning the cycle begins again with the Tramp getting thrown out.

The Little Man has take it upon himself to be somewhat of a guardian angel for the blind girl who has become his love. Money is needed if she wants to have a home, and despite getting fired from his job, he resolves to get the funds the next best way. In a boxing match. This is where my favorite sequence which plays out in the ring begins.

The Tramp is seemingly outgunned but that does not stop him from duking it out. He uses the referee, hugs and anything else at his disposal to try and not get clobbered. The scene had to choreographed extensively because at moments it looks just like a dance perfectly synchronized between the three characters.The so-called dance becomes even more uproarious when he begins to tackle his opponent and then unknowingly takes out the ref next. The fight seems even with each man falling down repetitiously as the ref tries to say the count. Unfortunately, the little man cannot hold out and he loses the pot.

One final time he runs into his millionaire friend just back from Europe and he gets the much needed money for his girl. Matters are complicated by burglars and a misunderstanding with the police. All works out in the end and the flower girl has her home and enough over to get a surgery to allow her to regain her sight.

Chaplin's character pays the cost though winding up in jail because of the "stolen" funds. When he gets on the outside he is more destitute than but the girl's business is now flourishing.

He runs into her and eyes her happily. Little does she know who this man is. This is not the debonair gentlemen she was expecting. She laughingly proclaims, "I've made a conquest."

Only when she touches his had by chance, reverting back to her old self, does she comprehend who this really is. This is her savior, the one person who radically changed her entire life. He is dressed in tatters and barely has a penny to his name. But he did have kindness and compassion for her.

A lot has been said about the final moments of the film where she has her aha moment and he responds accordingly. What strikes me is how Chaplin so effectively reveals the nervous charm of his character. His fingers are constantly near his mouth, flower in hand. He states the obvious (You can see now). Then, the film closes with his face lit up with another nervous smile, fingers still in mouth.

It is hard to say where the story goes from this point. That's not the important part here though. The important part is that in both of The Tramp's relationships his two friends cannot see who he truly is. The girl is physically blind and the millionaire is blinded by his stupor. They easily accept him in certain circumstances and yet they truly do not know him.

He on the other hand seems to accept them no matter the person they are at that moment. He is faithful and compassionate to them in all circumstances. It seems that perhaps the Tramp truly knows them because he is not blinded like they are. Again I marvel about how so much can be pondered thanks to the actions of an unassuming vagabond. He is a remarkable little man with a very big heart.

5/5 Stars

Modern Times (1936) - Updated

Modern Times: A story of industry, individual enterprise, humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness

With those words Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times opens with the final installment of The Little Tramp. In a little under 90 minutes Chaplin is able to do so much because he seemingly does not waste a single segment of film. This is one of the most wonderful pieces of social commentary that Chaplin was able to dream up to reflect the life and times of his audience. To reflect these modern times.

As was his style with The Great Dictator as well, he pokes fun and critiques his targets all under the guise of comedy. He sets the stage at the industrial factory that the Tramp works in. In a precursor to the famed I Love Lucy conveyor belt episode, it is the Tramp who must fight against the constant stream of nuts and bolts. Breaks and lunch become a thing of the past and the little man suffers a nervous breakdown that leads to mayhem involving a wild ride through the cogs of the machinery and some oily madness.

Right off the bat Chaplin poked fun at this mechanized system that is overseen by a Big Brother type figure who spends his idle moments at his desk working on puzzles and reading Tarzan serials.

After the Tramp is forced to leave his job following the series of mishaps he is confronted by numerous issues that Chaplin gleefully exploits. These include communism, the police force, prison, and even drugs (smuggled nose-powder).

Through the Tramp character Chaplin comments that with the state of the nation during the Depression it was better to be in jail than out in the world. At least you got a bed and food. It was better than unemployment or starving to death with the police constantly on your backs ready to quell any riots.

These sorts of issues are explored through the character of the Gamin (Paulette Goddard). She becomes the Tramp's love interest for the rest of the film, but the circumstances of their meeting is important. She was attempting to steal a loaf a bread from a bakery truck. It was not out of malice but desperation to feed her family.

The antics are often funny throughout these sequences but the reality is her sisters and she lose their father and they are motherless. The future is bleak and there is no help to be found with the Depression at its peak.

Here is where possibly my favorite part of the film begins. The two vagrants imagine themselves living in a middle class household with fruit they can pick from outside their window and a cow that comes up to their door to be milked. They have a fully furnished home with furniture, ottomans, drapes and a fully stocked kitchen. This is their American Dream and that is where their hope lies. One could say that this was the consumerism culture of the post-war 1950s in a nutshell.

Next, the Tramp becomes a night watchmen in a department store and for the evening he and the Gamin have the place all to themselves: To roller skate, eat and use the beds and furs as they please. It is a moment of relaxation from their normally grungy, monotonous lives.

Finally, they find a home as well. It is a real fixer upper but it is home and that's all that matters. They have each other and they seem happy enough making do. The Tramp goes back to his 9 to 5 at the factory only to get kicked out once more. The pair of them land work at a local restaurant only to have juvenile officers come after the fugitive Gamin after an uproarious floor show from the Tramp.

Thus, they are once more on the road again. But that never stopped them before and with his inexhaustible spirit the little man cheers on his love, "Buck up, never say die. We'll get along!"

They walk off down the highway with new resolve but more importantly they have each other. If they ever do find that elusive lifestyle I am not sure it would be all that it is cracked up to be. The life of a Depression Era vagabond was no picnic but I think the gift of the Tramp is he is able to make the best of all circumstances. He may look to a better lifestyle in the future with hope, but he does not need it to bring him happiness. Because the reality is it never could completely.

I tip my hat to you for once little man, because for someone so humble you teach us a great deal about ourselves.

Chaplin did it again bringing us a near silent picture in the age of talkies. Although I admit it might seem awkward at times, this film uses sound and the score wonderfully to accentuate the images onscreen. Chaplin did not need the needless babble of dialogue unless it was for comic effect. After all he and Paulette Goddard had enough chemistry beforehand, they didn't need words.

5/5 Stars