Slow Burn This is included as an extra on the “The Southerner” DVD and is much the better experience. Both films represent a lost attitude in film. This one is worth re-experiencing: the Slow Burn flummox that was invented by this guy, continued in many radio series (“Guildersleeve” is the best), to be mastered in… Continue reading Baby Daze (1939)
Tag: 1930s
Films released in the 1930s
Ask a Policeman (1939)
Ineptness The gang portrayed here is some sort of a triangulation among the Marxes, Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. We love theatrical movie ineptness, especially in policemen and politicians. Especially if the characters are Brits. And this is true it seems even if the audience is British. The form has fallen by the wayside now… Continue reading Ask a Policeman (1939)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Walk this Way The conventional wisdom is that a classic is something that is so well formed initially that it serves well for a long time. So classic films, for instance, are seen like classic car engines, well engineered things that still work. But I think with art, most of the effect is due to… Continue reading After the Thin Man (1936)
Another Thin Man (1939)
Another Side of Thin With the third of the series, the producers decided to move a little more into the world of Hammett and nudge away from the cutesy cute banter. It is only a little in that direction, but noticeable with the fairly complex plot. Hammett was a real innovator, taking the genre from… Continue reading Another Thin Man (1939)
Animal Crackers (1930)
Missed Marks I periodically revisit the Marx films to recharge my own desire for creative anarchy. This time around, I became more aware of how unclever this is as film, and how clever they got later in the medium as fast learners. Its not anarchy yet. This and “Coconuts” were stage shows the Brothers had… Continue reading Animal Crackers (1930)
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Shoulder Driving This movie works, and it interests me why. Regular readers of my comments know that I am on a grand quest to map all the introspective and complex folding tricks used to ensnare viewers. I’m convinced they are important. But along comes something like this that is so simple and pure, it throws… Continue reading Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Anabel Takes a Tour (1938)
Sometimes It Is People Serious film nuts are out there. I get mail from waves of them every day as I run in the dark, stepping on feet with my comments. There seem to be two kinds of zealots: those attached to genres and archetypes and those attached to specific people, actors and directors. I… Continue reading Anabel Takes a Tour (1938)
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
The Soul of the Movie Sometimes a movie enters you while you watch it. These days a movie often enters you well before you pay to see it, the soul of the thing having been conveyed to you by too-long trailers and saturation advertising. But is sometimes the case that a movie — especially one… Continue reading Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Jewel Robbery (1932)
Sex, Drugs and Crime William Powell is responsible for a huge element of our loves, the smoothness that has comic irony behind it. He invented it. There are a few of his movies that are essential viewing, but those are after the government thugs decided what movies should be like in “moral” terms. So you… Continue reading Jewel Robbery (1932)
Jezebel (1938)
Suffrage, Suffering I’m fickle, I admit, about context and films. Sometimes I watch them as they come to me today, and sometimes the other way around, as they (I imagine) appeared in their original context. This one is the rare project that prompts both. I’m seeing it 67 years after it was made. It was… Continue reading Jezebel (1938)