The Usual Choices
Cavalcade (Frank Lloyd)
Dinner at Eight (George Cukor)
Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon)
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper; Ernest B. Schoedsack)
Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian)
But how about...
Baby Face (Alfred E. Green)
aka Screw Your Way to the Top.
This eyebrow-raising movie is the very essence of pre-code immorality...and all the better for it. A social comedy which is cynical to the point of being poisonous, this tells the story of poor/tough girl (played by Barbara Stanwyck...talk about perfect casting) who becomes rich/hard girl, climbing ever-upwards on the fronts of multiple men. The film's credo is "Crush All Sentiment" (something the "heroine" gleans from reading Fredrich Nietzsche!) and it is to Barb's credit that we never shun her for this...if anything, we cheer her on...you go, girl. Other laudatory features include a foetal John Wayne (in way too much makeup) as an early suitor/victim, a backless dress worn by Barb which is both stunning and arousing (if you have a pulse) and the lead performance which shrivels everybody else in support. If only our gal's reform at the finish wasn't so downright inevitable.
...and what about...
Topaze (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast)
Built upon one of John Barrymore's finest and most endearing lightly-comedic performances (he's subtle! John Barrymore!), this is a worm-that-turns story about a schoolteacher who loses his beloved job due to the behaviour of one bastard kid and the kid's stupid mother (is my bias too blatant?) Supremely ethical, the nice guy makes the mistake of being honest to a parent about their child (the parent is rich and a patron of the school; the kid is a spoilt-rotten brat; the headmaster has a backbone of jelly) and is abruptly shown the door. Through thoroughly unlikely coincidences, he lands on his feet, is taken advantage of, is betrayed again, learns the true way of the world, temporarily becomes a prick but ends up getting the girl. A gentle examination of principle, harmful naivety and always-with-us corruption.
...not to mention...
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra)
This miscegenation story has an unusual setting (1920's Chinese Civil War)...I guess the turbulence of war reflects the inner-turmoil of a love which is not meant to be...or something. Well...whatever...it works: the general & the missionary woman ruin themselves with bridled (but not for long) lust. This is arguably Frank Capra's best directed film, so beautifully staged (war & love scenes) and strikingly lit (shadows & gloom used like paint). The film's sole weakness is the casting of Barbara Stanwyck...tough 'n' sassy she can do, but naive and subservient she struggles with. Still, she is well-supported by Walter Connolly as a money-behind-the-throne Yank opportunist. This is a tragic love story from 1930's Hollywood which has a bit more grit to it than the standard offering.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Cavalcade (Frank Lloyd)
This o-so lofty and terribly British Oscar Winner for Best Picture is as dull as dishwater. Based around the tribulations of a stinking rich family, it starts with the Siege of Mafeking then runs through the Death of Queen Victoria, the Crossing of the Channel by Bleriot, the Sinking of the Titanic, WWI, the Rise of Fascism & Communism, the Promiscuity of the Roaring Twenties and Jazz. (What...no room for Black Tuesday?) And my, how all these monumental events impact upon just one Upper-Class-couple-who-are-good-to-their-servants! As much as I enjoy seeing the round-voweled toffs suffer baby, the only sequence I was marginally impressed with involved their butler, his purchase of a pub, and his immediate downfall into alcoholism. Now there's a slice of life I can understand and have complete sympathy with.
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My Top 10 Films of 1933
#02 A King Kong (Cooper; Schoedsack)
#03 A Duck Soup (McCarey)
#04 A Baby Face (Green)
#05 A- Dinner at Eight (Cukor)
#06 A- Little Women (Cukor)
#07 A- Counsellor at Law (Wyler)
#08 A- The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Capra)
#09 A- Topaze (d'Abbadie d'Arrast)
#10 A- Queen Christina (Mamoulian)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ Wild Boys of the Road (Wellman)
#12 B+ Lady For a Day (Capra)
#13 B+ The Mayor of Hell (Mayo)
#14 B+ Gold Diggers of 1933 (LeRoy)
#15 B+ Mystery of the Wax Museum (Curtiz)
#16 B+ Zoo in Budapest (Lee)
#17 B+ The Power and the Glory (Howard)
#18 B+ Blood Money (Brown)
#19 B+ The Kennel Murder Case (Curtiz)
#20 B+ Bombshell (Fleming)
#21 B+ Employees' Entrance (Del Ruth)
#22 B+ Three Cornered Moon (Nugent)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Man's Castle [a Great Depression romance that seems to male-justify the ill-treatment of women]
> B Sons of the Desert [not up to the standard of their silent shorts, but the boys are still a hoot]
> B 42nd Street [unfortunately, heifer-footed Ruby & cherry-cheeked Dick are front and centre]
> B Footlight Parade [Jimmy & Joan are terrific of course, but it takes too long to get to the Busby nuttiness]
> B Tugboat Annie [quaint MGM star vehicle, but I struggle with alcoholism-as-comedy]
> B Gabriel Over the White House [aka Benevolent Dictatorship, American Style]
> B The Ghoul [OK Karloff thriller with a strong cast, but the pacing is more tortoise than hare]
> B Murders in the Zoo [jawdroppingly violent and quite effective but what is Charlie Ruggles doing there?]
> B- The Narrow Corner [Somerset Maugham potboiler which tries to be as good as The Letter but mostly muffs it]
> B- Lady Killer [starts brightly, gets tough, turns silly & sillier, tries to get tough again but it's too late]
> B- I Cover the Waterfront [grim story blighted by some inappropriate casting, comic relief & romance]
> B- The Private Life of Henry VIII [actually a costumed murder-comedy where you can hear its joints creak]
> B- Hallelujah I'm a Bum [even for a history buff like me, this is just too dated]
> B- Oliver Twist [the primal power of the story remains but the telling is too stodgy and rushed]
> B- Morning Glory [needs the windows opened, and the lead performance is not all it's cracked up to be]
> B- Ladies They Talk About [a prehistoric Women in Prison movie, with murderesses who are really quite nice]
> B- She Done Him Wrong [my sense of humour was born 26 years after this]
> C One Man's Journey [a Country-Doctor-as-Martyr+Superman story, God bless 'im]
> C Cavalcade [A Personal Unmentionable]
> D In the Wake of The Bounty [a landmark Australian film: part awful docu-drama, part South Seas travel brochure]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1933 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Ann Vickers (Cromwell); Another Language (Griffith); Before Dawn (Pichel); The Bowery (Walsh); Christopher Strong (Arzner); Clear All Wires (Hill); Convention City (Mayo); Dancing Lady (Leonard); Design for Living (Lubitsch); Doctor Bull (Ford); Don’t Bet on Love (Roth); Double Harness (Cromwell); The Eagle and the Hawk (Walker); The Emperor Jones (Murphy); Female (Curtiz); Flying Down to Rio (Freeland); Friday the Thirteenth (Saville); Gallant Lady (La Cava); Hard to Handle (LeRoy); Heroes for Sale (Wellman); His Double Life (Hopkins); Hold Your Man (Wood); Hoop-La (Lloyd); I Loved a Woman (Green); I Was a Spy (Saville); The Little Giant (Del Ruth); Looking Forward (Brown); Mama Loves Papa (McLeod); Men Must Fight (Selwyn); Midnight Mary (Wellman); The Mind Reader (Del Ruth); Murder on the Campus (Thorpe); The Nuisance (Conway); One Sunday Afternoon (Roberts); Only Yesterday (Stahl); Penthouse (Van Dyke); The Picture Snatcher (Bacon); Pilgrimage (Ford); Rafter Romance (Seiter); Reunion in Vienna (Franklin); Should Ladies Behave (Beaumont); The Solitaire Man (Conway); The Sphinx (Rosen); State Fair (King); The Story of Temple Drake (Roberts); The Stranger’s Return (Vidor); Supernatural (Halperin); Today We Live (Hawks); Turn Back the Clock (Selwyn); When Ladies Meet (Beaumont); Whistling in the Dark (Nugent); Woman Accused (Sloane); The World Changes (LeRoy)
Best Performances of 1933
Marie Dressler in Dinner at Eight
Greta Garbo in Queen Christina
Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory
Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII
Groucho Marx in Duck Soup
Claude Rains in The Invisible Man
Barbara Stanwyck in The Bitter Tea of General Yen
Mae West in She Done Him Wrong
But how about...
May Robson in Lady For a Day
Born in Moama, New South Wales, May was Australia's first Oscar-nominated actor, in this very role. As sentimental as all get-out, the film tells the story of Apple Annie (New York panhandler) and her dream-life as a rich socialite...which gets thrust into the real world when her daughter visits. May is the main reason why the film works...although reduced to near-supporting status in the second half (the film focusses on the gangster with the heart of gold), she holds her own, in both the dipsomaniacal incarnation and the softly-coiffured classy version. When May's bottom lip trembles, it's not a mere reaction to grab sympathy...the old dear is scared and we are scared for her. When Bette Davis played the part in the 1961 remake, she worked the pathos to near-death...May keeps it recognisably human. Here's to you, May.
...and what about...
John Barrymore in Counsellor at Law
While John (The Profile...And Quite Often The Ham) Barrymore was at his best in comedic roles during the 1930's (Topaze & Twentieth Century & Midnight), his performance in Counsellor at Law is the best purely-dramatic exception to the rule. Playing an up-from-the-sticks-now-high-classed lawyer, John dishes out rapid-fire dialogue, impressing us with his work ethic, commitment to real justice and ability to immediately assess a situation and act (apart from his own private life of course...in that, he is a sap). He is the whole show, the camera maneuvering around him inside one small nest of offices. Energetic and commanding, John takes us holus-bolus through his various crises of ethics. It is a bravura portrayal of a good man slapped down by bad people.
...not to mention...
Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight
While I have never been totally taken with Miss Harlow's acting ability (she usually came across as a rather, er, broad broad), her star power is undeniable. Of course, a true star can surprise you...and this comedic performance ranks with Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby for unexpected actress hilarity. The scene which is particularly burned into my brain is when Jean tries to talk Wally Beery (hardly a viable beau for Jean Harlow but...moving on...) into going to a dinner party. She begins by resorting to baby talk then shuffles through attack-slang, in-your-face accusations and threatening to go on sex-strike. You just know that she has had to kiss a lot of frogs to get this far, and no bozo is going to stop her from gettin' some real class. It's something Jean need never worry about.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade
Alright...alright...Ruby wasn't that bad in Footlight Parade (when she wasn't dancing, that is). But as Pauline Kael so eloquently put it, Ruby Keeler was awesomely untalented. Can't act, can't dance, can't sing...a triple threat...so what the hell was she doing in musicals?? While snickering trendoids & old movie tragics take the stance of "she was so bad, she was good", I just stare at Ruby's galumphing tapdance "style", immediately think of those ballet elephants in Fantasia, and wince. Ruby was the auntie of that fat kid who played Pugsley in The Addams Family TV show...now there is her rightful claim to fame.
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My 10 Favourite Performances of 1933
#01 Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight
#02 Una O'Connor in The Invisible Man
#03 Katharine Hepburn in Little Women
#04 Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face
#05 John Barrymore in Topaze
#06 John Barrymore in Counsellor at Law
#07 Aline MacMahon in Gold Diggers of 1933
#08 May Robson in Lady For a Day
#09 Paul Lukas in Little Women
#10 Laurel & Hardy in Sons of the Desert
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 John Barrymore in Dinner at Eight
#12 The Marx Brothers & Margaret Dumont in Duck Soup
#13 Frankie Darro in Wild Boys of the Road
#14 Spencer Tracy in The Power and the Glory
#15 Claude Rains in The Invisible Man
#16 Glenda Farrell in Mystery of the Wax Museum
#17 Walter Connolly in The Bitter Tea of General Yen
#18 Joan Bennett in Little Women
#19 Greta Garbo in Queen Christina
#20 Ernest Torrence in I Cover the Waterfront
#21 Mary Boland in Three Cornered Moon
#22 Franchot Tone in Bombshell
#23 Billie Burke in Dinner at Eight
#24 Dudley Digges in The Narrow Corner
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade [you're kidding, right?]
> Barbara Stanwyck in The Bitter Tea of General Yen [Barb just doesn't play well as a mousy victim]
> Marie Dressler in Dinner at Eight [apart from the classic last line, she mugs too much]
> Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII [too big]
> Robert Donat in The Private Life of Henry VIII [looks uncomfortable in those pants]
> Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory [well-enunciated & suitably doe-eyed but also vaguely annoying]
> Mae West in She Done Him Wrong [heresy I know, but I've always thought Mae more blobby than sexy...or funny]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1933 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Invisible Man (James Whale)
SILVER: King Kong (Merian C. Cooper; Ernest Schoedsack)
BRONZE: Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: John Barrymore (Topaze)
SILVER: John Barrymore (Counsellor at Law)
BRONZE: Spencer Tracy (The Power and the Glory)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Katharine Hepburn (Little Women)
SILVER: Barbara Stanwyck (Baby Face)
BRONZE: May Robson (Lady For a Day)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Paul Lukas (Little Women)
SILVER: John Barrymore (Dinner at Eight)
BRONZE: Walter Connolly (The Bitter Tea of General Yen)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jean Harlow (Dinner at Eight)
SILVER: Una O'Connor (The Invisible Man)
BRONZE: Aline MacMahon (Gold Diggers of 1933)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Laurel & Hardy (Sons of the Desert)
SILVER: The Marx Brothers & Margaret Dumont (Duck Soup)
BRONZE: Marie Dressler & Wallace Beery (Tugboat Annie)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Frankie Darro (Wild Boys of the Road)
SILVER: Frankie Darro (The Mayor of Hell)
BRONZE: Dickie Moore (Oliver Twist)
The Alternate Razzies for 1933 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
In the Wake of The Bounty (Charles Chauvel)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Errol Flynn (In the Wake of the Bounty)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Ruby Keeler (42nd Street)
The Special Awards for 1933 are:
DIRECTORS HALL OF FAME: THIS YEAR'S INDUCTEES
[at least three A-List films in their oeuvre; awarded in the year of their greatest film]
> James Whale
CAN YOU SPOT?...BEST CAMEO or FLEETING APPEARANCE of 1933
> That's Walter Brennan as the ever-so-surprised bicycle owner in The Invisible Man
NEAR-MISS CASTING of 1933: LUCKILY FOR US...
> Constance Bennett missed out on the Katharine Hepburn role in Little Women
NEAR-MISS CASTING of 1933: UNLUCKILY FOR US...
> Clark Gable missed out on the Edmund Lowe role in Dinner at Eight
BLOCKBUSTER!: TOP 3 HIGHEST-GROSSING MOVIES of 1933
> $$$ Cavalcade distributed by Fox
> $$ Gold Diggers of 1933 distributed by Warner Bros.
> $ Queen Christina distributed by MGM
THE BEST OSCAR DECISION OF 1933
> Little Women won for Best Writing (Adaptation)
THE WORST OSCAR DECISION OF 1933
> Cavalcade won for Best Picture AND Best Directing
BEST DID-YOU-KNOW TRIVIA of 1933
> For the Invisible Man to maintain invisibility, he must be naked. However, in the 1933 movie, when he is cornered and shot, he leaves shoeprints in the snow rather than footprints. Whoops.
MOST INTERESTING BEHIND-THE-SCENES / BACKSTORY of 1933
> The filming of Gold Diggers of 1933 was all going according to schedule until Friday the 10th of March at 5:54 pm. At that time, a major earthquake (6.4 on the Richter scale) hit nearby Long Beach and impacted all areas. On a Warner Bros sound stage, Busby Berkeley was directing the "Shadow Waltz" sequence when all hell broke loose. All went black as lights arc-ed & short-circuited, Busby was thrown from the camera boom and hung on by one hand, and the dancers were stuck atop a 10-metre high scaffold which started to teeter precariously as panic set in.
120 people were killed in Southern California that day, and 40 million dollars worth of property was wrecked. For more facts & figures, go HERE.
BEST ONE-LINER of 1933
> "Go and never darken my towels again!"
Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup
FADE OUT / SCENE ENDS: GOODBYE & THANKS...
> ROSCOE "FATTY" ARBUCKLE (1887-1933) ACTOR/DIRECTOR First Film 1909 / Final Film 1932
[Personal Fave Performance / Film: TBA]
BEST DID-YOU-KNOW TRIVIA of 1933
> For the Invisible Man to maintain invisibility, he must be naked. However, in the 1933 movie, when he is cornered and shot, he leaves shoeprints in the snow rather than footprints. Whoops.
MOST INTERESTING BEHIND-THE-SCENES / BACKSTORY of 1933
> The filming of Gold Diggers of 1933 was all going according to schedule until Friday the 10th of March at 5:54 pm. At that time, a major earthquake (6.4 on the Richter scale) hit nearby Long Beach and impacted all areas. On a Warner Bros sound stage, Busby Berkeley was directing the "Shadow Waltz" sequence when all hell broke loose. All went black as lights arc-ed & short-circuited, Busby was thrown from the camera boom and hung on by one hand, and the dancers were stuck atop a 10-metre high scaffold which started to teeter precariously as panic set in.
120 people were killed in Southern California that day, and 40 million dollars worth of property was wrecked. For more facts & figures, go HERE.
BEST ONE-LINER of 1933
> "Go and never darken my towels again!"
Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup
FADE OUT / SCENE ENDS: GOODBYE & THANKS...
> ROSCOE "FATTY" ARBUCKLE (1887-1933) ACTOR/DIRECTOR First Film 1909 / Final Film 1932
[Personal Fave Performance / Film: TBA]
