Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – RKO – 1940: VIGIL IN THE NIGHT & ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS

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This week’s studio is RKO, 1940, and we have two great movies: Vigil in the Night, starring Carole Lombard as a saintly nurse and Anne Shirley as her flawed sister in George Stevens’ noirish medical drama; and Lincoln in Illinois, based on Robert E. Sherwood’s play, with Raymond Massey reprising his stage role of Abraham Lincoln. We discuss the latter as an anti-fascist film and argue for both films as examples of RKO’s particular brand of progressivism, which continues even after the departure of Pandro S. Berman. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:      VIGIL IN THE NIGHT [dir. George Stevens]

0h 47m 01s:      ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS [dir. John Cromwell]

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin

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! 

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Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

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August Special Subject – German Sirk Sampler – Part 1 – THE GIRL FROM THE MARSH CROFT (1935) & PILLARS OF SOCIETY (1936)

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Our Special Subject for August is also our first look at German filmmaking under the Nazis, with two mid-1930s films by left-wing director and future Hollywood auteur Douglas Sirk: The Girl from the Marsh Croft, based on the novel by Selma Lagerlöf, and Pillars of Society, based on the play by Henrik Ibsen. We consider the question of how it was possible to make liberal films under these circumstances and find early evidence of Sirk’s interest in “split characters” and unconventional protagonists. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s:        Introductory discussion on Sirk at UFA during the 1933 to 1937 period

0h 13m 15s:      THE GIRL FROM THE MARSH CROFT (1935) [dir. Douglas Sirk]

0h 38m 15s:      PILLARS OF SOCIETY (1936) [dir. Douglas Sirk]

 

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – 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 4: THE DEFENSE RESTS (1934), THE PUBLIC MENACE (1935) & IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK (1935)

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Acteurist oeuvre-view – Jean Arthur – Part 4: THE DEFENSE RESTS (1934), THE PUBLIC MENACE (1935) & IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK (1935)

In this week’s Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we look at 3 Jean Arthur movies: The Defense Rests (1934), an excellent corrupt lawyer drama that we were previously unable to find; and from 1935, two very different romantic comedies featuring real or pretend marriages of convenience, The Public Menace and If You Could Only Cook. The simultaneously idealistic and pragmatic young lawyer, screwball liar, and Depression comedy heroine she plays in each of these films respectively give us several aspects of Arthur’s emerging screen persona to discuss in this last moment before she finds true fame. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s:      THE DEFENSE RESTS (1934) [dir. Lambert Hillyer]

0h 35m 56s:    THE PUBLIC MENACE (1935) [dir. Erle C. Kenton]

0h 46m 09s:    IF YOU COULD ONLT COOK (1935) [dir. William A. Seiter]

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – 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!

Read Full Post »

Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – 20th Century Fox – 1940: BRIGHAM YOUNG & JOHNNY APOLLO

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For this Fox 1940 episode, we look at a couple of films with the same director (Henry Hathaway), same cinematographer (Arthur Miller), and same nominal star (Tyrone Power), but radically different stories. Brigham Young tells the story of the persecution of the Mormons and their journey westward from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake, recasting this American epic as an implicit anti-Nazi tale with progressive values. Then we shift from Fox’s traditional sophisticated “rural” storytelling to their new urban focus with the crime drama Johnny Apollo, which casts a cool eye on the American system in this moment of transition from Great Depression to WWII. 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:      BRIGHAM YOUNG [dir. Henry Hathaway]

0h 42m 50s:      JOHNNY APOLLO [dir. Henry Hathaway]

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of 20^th Century Fox by Tony Thomas & Aubrey Solomon

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

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 »