Movies Posts Tagged as '1930s'
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Our Blushing Brides (1930)
Three working girls put their retirement on speed. The only way a woman could claim early retirement was to meet a man of privilege. The women were protective of each other and the men were perverse. The fate of all three women are different. By the end, the film relinquishes its madcap wit for serious drama. Joan Crawford was the big sister every friend needed. When lady Joan ignited, it was firecracker. Her character seemed to contradict herself, though. She couldn't succumb to a sexy one night stand with her dream date. Really? Dude, he had the most lavish treehouse ever. It had retracting stairs! And a view! Robert Montgomery was a pretty little thing that happenened to be the boss of the store the girls sold and modeled for. They wore new fashion to convince snobby zillas, they were attractive. Acting was pure, the funny had limits, and Lady Joan roared. 14-Aug-2024
Night Must Fall (1937)
2 ladies living alone in an Oz cottage, on Disney land, invite a Tim Burton forest to bloom in their garden. They are served by two maids. The young maid is bungling, the old maid's had it and the matriarch wants her fired. Her problem is that her boyfriend wont marry her. He can't afford it. Matriarch agrees to talk to him but he charms the diaper out of her, instead. She offers him a job as an invalid's aide and he becomes an inhabitant and protector of bored ladies." Niece is the family loser that never got over her shyness enough, to attract a decent man or a job. She didn't know how to say, "no." Niece and philanderer were hate/love throughout but it didn't deter him from lighting her bulb. Proximity and attraction make sense (unless you're related.) Robert Montgomery was cornfed to pretend and prance like a force. May Whitty was a cranky matriarch that got her life gift a little too late. Power without youth creates hate. She was great. Rosalind Russell glowed as a dork and splintered glass when everything got darker. A murderer has hit the neighborhood and everyone is on high alert. The niece and the scoundrel play a great tennis match. She becomes a Karen that profiles him as a minority suspect and he's making sure that how he insults her, is within his rights. Did he or didn't he is not the question. Montgomery explains to Rosalind that the reason she needs him to be a criminal is because catching him is the last orgasm she's going to have. 02-Jan-2024
My Man Godfrey (1936)
I watched a fair colored version of it. It has no Lucy vibrance but it's preferable. Rich people are game hunting homeless people for $5.00. Homeless man with a magnificent vocabulary impresses one of them into a job. He becomes a butler of a household that is run by women who are vulnerable to masculinity. A woman who despises him is bested by her woke sister. She charismatically barbs with him with mind hate and body lust, good sister becomes insane and mother is madly impressed. Oh no! The maid is getting the flutters. Crap, she likes daddy, too! The mother has a Spanish mentor that eats more than he performs. William Powell hides a secret. He is more astonishing than he appears. In color you could see the twinkle that made women swoon. His elegance adds to it. Carole Lombard kept going in and out of consciousness. The family is wacko. The men are freed and entrapt at the end. 07-Mar-2023
Panama Lady (1939)
Her name is Lucy and her big bad boyfriend is an aviator with smuggling and backstabbing tendencies. Stranded in Panama she embroils herself with an oil prospector whose kind gestures she takes for granted. Oil daddy's loot is stolen and Lucy plays the fall guy. As penance she retreats to his island home and becomes head maid to a spiteful tribal servant. She is Lucy before Desi as an alluring young professional unlocking her genius, brandishing a gun and standing up for herself. 20-Oct-2021
No Place To Go (1939)
Big daddy brute that spits sunshine in your face, suddenly awakens from his lavish slumber to rescue his dad whose stuck in a senior vet dump. The wife is uncomfortable but accepting. She can't warm up to having a child in the house. His contribution is well-intentioned but it doesn't conform to the modern world and he embarrasses the crap out of her. The staff keeps rotating because of his interference and idiosyncrasies. The constant gripes fatigue grandpa into finding his own niche amongst the prosperous by giving back to the poor. He befriends a child and adopts a dog. It pokes fun lightly, it sweetens gently and it hits you instantly. 28-Jun-2021
Annabelle Takes A Tour (1938)
I didn't expect much. There are no early signs of Lucyisms because Lucille wanted to convey a star. Washed up Hollywood connoisseur is lagging at the box office. An insignificant publicist arranges movie roles that she has to act out in real life. If she's playing a prisoner, she goes to jail, if she's a sexy maid that's what she becomes. It's difficult to see a buffoon handle physical comedy when a master stood beside him but that's what was expected of a female Hollywood star. High heeled and mute. Ms. Ball was caught in a silly comedy that limited her intelligence and expertise. The physical comedy was male oriented and she was relegated to wit only. It was a viewer audition film. When buffoon performs the "handy dandy cleaner" skit without assistance from the master I was mightily heartbroken. 26-May-2021
Devil-Doll, The (1936)
Escaped prisoner hitches a ride with a dying scientist who wants to make it home so he and his wife can shrink people to change the world. The protagonist just wants to avenge the men who set him up and gain his daughter's respect. The escapees make it to the wife's cottage. A frightfully wonderful Rafaela Ottiano plays the faithful wife who has maintained his experiments and awaited his arrival. They want to shrink people so they can consume less and help the environment. It starts with dogs, jumps to lowly humans and precipitates into people you want canceled. Lionel Barrymore is top notch as the set-up guy lucking into revenge. The dolls have brilliant moments and shoddy ones. The dolls are a cameo to the story of a man that has to become a woman to safeguard his family and prove his innocence. 24-May-2021
Daughter of Shanghai (1937)
Smuggling asians to America for slave labor. It's big on gumption because the makers gambled on a "good eye". There is a jolt of celebration in seeing ourselves being portrayed in a prohibitive era. The film is incomplete, scarcely budgeted and cold in character development. It's not its fault. What blesses it, is Anna May Wong's illumination and a supporting cast that keep it burning. The characters were typed to be as they were. 13-May-2020
Satan Met A Lady (1936)
They hired accomplished actors to line read with little expression except snide, stupid or cute. The characters are comic strip flat. 04-Dec-2019
Naughty or Nice (1939)
A gifted songwriter can only love when he's drunk. The maid is named Killer and the actors add snap to their wit. It's gay vintage. 29-Dec-2018
Girl From 10th Avenue, The (1935)
Social climber rejects love to marry greater wealth, dumpee breaks and drowns in alcoholism while Bette is the independent working woman who rehabilitates him in spite of her misgivings. As soon as Bette settles with her man, climber returns from a separation to repossess her loss. The rumble is exhilarating because we get to see how legend earned her stripes and even though Alison Skipworth (as a good friend) can unleash a mad hilarious quip, Bette still occupies the room.
The writing appears modern because I've never heard men and women speak so bluntly to each other unless they were arguing.
I love Bette because when minorities/sexes complained that they weren't seeing themselves in art, I was becoming stronger by watching a white woman take control of hers. I see myself in everyone. It's called empathy. 09-Mar-2018
Scrooge (1935) - in color
The presentation is raw and color adds a bit more warmth. The haunt is sober with no fuss. 18-Dec-2017
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
It is top notch art but story has little relevance to the present or framing of children's minds. Female vanity is the enemy. A princess frolics the woods with animals so cute they tempt your patience and ends up serving little men who are not aware they can cure their ache with a yank. The eyes receive the most pleasure esp. when the Queen has a turn but the outdated mythology no longer hooks and it stopped speaking a long time ago. Besides, what type of princess eats an apple after it falls to the ground? 08-May-2017
Jezebel (1938)
A captivating history is its background as an uncomfortable visit through black slavery is remindful. Hollywood stamps it, softens it and moves on. At the forefront is a comment on sexism and its effects on a woman whose aspirations are more about being an individual than a society sanctioned female. She conspires and instigates as she suffers repercussions that only incites her to dust off, add some humility and never waver in her goal. Bette at her most beautiful and durable. The story predates "Gone With The Wind" and is erected firmly beside it. 28-Nov-2016
A Star Is Born (1937)
The one that started it all. It gets it all right but its not king because the others that followed blew their horns louder. 07-Jan-2016