Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1940: NORTHWEST PASSAGE & STRANGE CARGO

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An odd pairing for this MGM 1940 episode: King Vidor’s Northwest Passage, which is not about finding the Northwest Passage at all but about an attack on an Abenaki village by an independent ranger company attached to the British Army; and Frank Borzage’s mystical prison break movie, Strange Cargo. We make the argument for a Starship Troopers reading of Northwest Passage before grappling with the many issues of Strange Cargo, from Borzage’s use of Crawford and Gable’s star personas, to the movie’s theodicy, to the many Code-defying topics it deals with. We find a tonal similarity with the poetic realism movement in French cinema of the 1930s, and consider Borzage’s treatment of love, salvation and gender. 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:      NORTHWEST PASSAGE [dir. King Vidor]

0h 30m 24s:      STRANGE CARGO [dir. Frank Borzage]

1h 17m 11s:      Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto – Kinuyo Tanaka’s Love Under the Crucifix (1962)

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

                                   

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* 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)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

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June Special Subject – Silent Dreyer Sampler – MICHAEL (1924) & MASTER OF THE HOUSE (1925)

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This Week’s Special Subject is a look at the early silent cinema of Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer, during the years preceding The Passion of Joan of Arc. We discuss Michael (1924), about the relationship between a famous painter and his male model, and Master of the House (1925), a comedy about the taming of a tyrannical patriarch. Subjects include Dreyer’s unique take on the visionary possibilities of love, which can allow you to transcend ordinary human experience in one way or another; and the interrelationship of patriarchy, matriarchy, and the use of violence and fear in maintaining domestic discipline. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we briefly discuss Carné’s romantic epic Children of Paradise (1945), generally considered one of the great masterpieces of French cinema, and another Kinuyo Tanaka film, Girls of the Night (1961), about the consequences for sex workers when prostitution was proscribed by law in mid-1950s Japan. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:     Brief Intro. Carl Theodor Dreyer

0h 10m 29s:     MICHAEL (1924) [Dir. Carl Th. Dreyer]

0h 31m 35s:      MASTER OF THE HOUSE (1925) [Dir. Carl Th. Dreyer]

0h 49m 19s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Carné’s ENFANTS DU PARADIS & Tanaka’s GIRLS OF THE NIGHT

 

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project (coming next week!) – a discussion of Late Spring

* 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)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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Acteurist oeuvre-view – Jean Arthur – Part 1 – WHIRLPOOL (1934) and THE MOST PRECIOUS THING IN LIFE (1934)

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In our inaugural Jean Arthur Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we join Gladys Georgianna Greene as she signs on at Columbia Pictures, two years before her star-making team-up with Frank Capra. Her first two films for Columbia, Whirlpool and The Most Precious Thing in Life, are a couple of curious weepies with missing-parent plots that allow Arthur to play first the daughter, then the mother, but never the love interest. First, Dave gives us an account of why Jean Arthur is so important to him, and Elise explains what it has to do with Shakespeare’s Rosalind. Then, in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we briefly discuss the first two Kinuyo Tanaka films where she takes on a real auteur role, Forever a Woman, based on the true story of a poet who died of breast cancer, which we saw as a kind of cross between Dark Victory and My Left Foot, and the political epic The Wandering Princess, which shows the events of WWII from the perspective of a Japanese noblewoman who marries into the Manchurian puppet dynasty. 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:    Prolegomenon To All Future Jean Arthurs

0h 31m 06s:    WHIRLPOOL (1934) [dir. Roy William Neil]

0h 59m 47s:    THE MOST PRECIOUS THING IN LIFE (1934) [dir. Lambert Hillyer]

1h 31m 02s:    Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Kinuyo Tanaka’s FOREVER A WOMAN (1955) & THE WANDERING PRINCESS (1960)

 

+++

* 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)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1940: THE GREAT MCGINTY & THE WAY OF ALL FLESH + Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto

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For this 1940 Paramount episode, an Akim Tamiroff (and Muriel Angelus) double feature in which we unlock the secrets of Preston Sturges’ inspiration. First, we look at The Way of All Flesh (directed by Louis King), a little-known proto-noir Christmas movie that seems to have taken its inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne, as filtered through the sensibilities of top screenwriters Lenore Coffee and Jules Furthman. Then we move on to the first movie directed by dynamo screenwriter-turned-sui generis-director Preston Sturges, The Great McGinty, which directly references the plot of The Way of All Flesh in its prologue. We make our case for the evolution of The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek out of both movies and talk Sturges, artificial families, and lost fathers. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:    THE WAY OF ALL FLESH [dir. Lewis King]

0h 36m 26s:    THE GREAT MCGINTY [dir. Preston Sturges]

1h 06m 00s:    Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto – Kinuyo Tanaka’s Love Letter (1953) and The Moon Has Risen (1955)

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

                                   

+++

* 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)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Check out this episode!

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Acteurist oeuvre-view – Daniel Day-Lewis – Part 8: NINE (2009) & LINCOLN (2012) + Daniel Acteur Top 10s

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In our final Daniel Day-Lewis Acteurist Oeuvreview episode, we look at a commercial and critical flop, Rob Marshall’s Nine (2009), a musical based on Fellini’s celebrated semi-autobiographical film 8 1/2, and a commercial and critical triumph, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), covering the final four months of Abraham Lincoln’s life and especially the process of passing the Thirteenth Amendment. We consider how these roles relate to Day-Lewis’s screen persona, then launch into a discussion of his entire career as we each give our Top 10 Daniel Day-Lewis performances. Has Day-Lewis been “typecast” by critics? And how do his best roles serve his unique qualities as an actor and personality? Find out what we think (and feel free to tell us what you think)! 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:    NINE (2009) [dir. Rob Marshall]

0h 22m 37s:    LINCOLN (2012) [dir. Steven Spielberg]

0h 50m 04s:    Daniel Day-Lewis Wrap-Up & Top 10s

 

+++

* 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)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »