Baby Daze (1939)

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)

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)

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)