Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1936: THE PLAINSMAN & THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN

In this Studios Year by Year episode, 1936 begins with Paramount, and we take a look at two movies about gun-running that star Gary Cooper, but have little else in common (despite using the same cinematographer). We don’t find much to love about Cecil B. DeMille’s tribute to Wild West mythology, The Plainsman, starring Gary Cooper as an insufficiently hirsute Wild Bill Hickock and Jean Arthur as a whip-happy Calamity Jane; but Dave waxes enthusiastic about Lewis Milestone’s The General Died at Dawn, an off-kilter Popular Front movie that’s half-Hitchcock espionage romance, half-poetic realist manifesto. You know it’s wonderful, and we know you’re wonderful too.

Time Codes: 

0h 01m 00s:                  THE PLAINSMAN (dir. Cecil DeMille)

0h 40m 23s:                 THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN (dir. Lewis Milestone)

           

Review paragraphs from – The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames

                                   

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

*Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Find Elise’s latest film piece on Billy Wilder and 1930s Romantic Comedy

*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

Acteurist oeuvre-view – Clara Bow – Part 7: CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (1927) & WINGS (1927)

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/18832553/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

In this episode of our Clara Bow Acteurist Oeuvre-view, two films from 1927, the curious love triangle (quandrangle if you’re generous) melodrama Children of Divorce, directed by Frank Lloyd (but maybe really Josef von Sternberg), and William A. Wellman’s Andy-Hardy-Goes-to-War aerial spectacle, Wings. Elise says “Jamesian”! Dave says “Verhoevian”! (Shouldn’t it be “Verhoevenian”?!) We contemplate Clara Bow as a precursor to Judy Garland (but with more nudity) and as a waifish Kate Croy crossed with early Jerry Lewis.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:                  CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (1927) [dirs. Frank Lloyd & Josef von Sternberg]  

0h 36m 30s:                  WINGS (1927) [dir. William A. Wellman]

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

*Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Find Elise’s latest film piece on Billy Wilder and 1930s Romantic Comedy

*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

Special Subject – Produced By Joan Harrison, Part 1 – PHANTOM LADY (1944), THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY (1945), NOCTURNE (1946), THEY WON’T BELIEVE ME (1947). Also: Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchc

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/18746666/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

A four-film Special Subject episode, Joan Harrison, Producer, Part 1 looks at: Phantom Lady (1944), The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), Nocturne (1946), and They Won’t Believe Me (1947). These idiosyncratic noirs and Jamesian melodramas by the former Hitchcock screenwriter and honorary family member interrogate gender roles, flip gendered tropes, and deconstruct male resentment of women in ways that faintly anticipate Elaine May’s work. We also discuss the Negative Capability of George Raft, the void-like charisma of Robert Young, the appealing androgyny of Ella Raines and very different vibe of Susan Hayward, Geraldine Fitzgerald’s ability to be sexy and Victorian at the same time, and George Sanders’ subtle way of showing us his soul dying inside of him. It’s a big episode! 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:                  Brief introduction to Joan Harrison

0h 19m 08s:                  PHANTOM LADY (1944) [dr. Robert Siodmak]

0h 48m 41s:                 NOCTURNE (1946) [dir. Edwin L. Marin]

1h 15m 08s:                  THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY (1945) [dir. Robert Siodmak]

1h 43m 41s:                 THEY WON’T BELIEVE ME (1947) [dir. Irving Pichel]                               

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

*Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Find Elise’s latest film piece on Billy Wilder and 1930s Romantic Comedy

*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Universal – 1935: REMEMBER LAST NIGHT? & NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/18661361/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

Our Universal 1935 Studios Year by Year episode examines two movies about the shenanigans of the idle rich, but that’s where the resemblance ends. James Whale’s Remember Last Night? (1935) is a Thin Man parody heavy on the class satire and absurdism, while Lowell Sherman’s swan song, Night Life of the Gods, is about a wealthy scientist who discovers how to turn his straitlaced family into statues and brings a museum’s statues of Roman gods to life.  Also, for no reason at all, his love interest is a 900-year-old fairy. And yet, somehow the funniest thing in the movie is a fish-slapping vaudeville set piece. They can’t all be winners, but people getting hit always brings joy. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:                  REMEMBER LAST NIGHT? (dir. James Whale)

0h 35m 33s:                 NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS (dir. Lowell Sherman)

 

Review paragraphs from – The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn

                                   

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

*Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Find Elise’s latest film piece on Billy Wilder and 1930s Romantic Comedy

*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »

Acteurist oeuvre-view – Clara Bow – Part 6: KID BOOTS (1926) & IT (1927)

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/18578186/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/standard/tdest_id/2333198″ height=”100″ width=”” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]

Our first Clara Bow movie of this episode, Kid Boots (1926) allows Bow to show off her slapstick skills again in a surprisingly compatible pairing with Eddie Cantor. Then we turn to the second masterpiece of the series so far, the famous-but-somehow-still-underrated It (1927), directed by Clarence G. Badger. We marvel at the full flowering of the Bow persona, including its feminist modernity, its subtle (most of the time) incorporation of androgyny, and, once again, its sexual subjectivity. 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:                 KID BOOTS (1926) [dir. Frank Tuttle] 

0h 28m 55s:                 IT (1927) [dir. Clarence G. Badger]                            

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

*Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Find Elise’s latest film piece on Billy Wilder and 1930s Romantic Comedy

*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »