The Usual Choices
Dodsworth (William Wyler)
The Great Ziegfeld (Robert Z. Leonard)
Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)
Mr Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra)
San Francisco (W.S. Van Dyke)
Swing Time (George Stevens)
But how about...
My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava)
This is my favourite screwball comedy, my favourite Great Depression movie and my favourite film of the Thirties. A once-a-year viewing joy, usually reached for when I'm on an "Up" and want to extend the feeling a bit longer. Even after all that's happened in the world since 1936, My Man Godfrey remains a topical film (homelessness and the practical morality needed to help vanquish it + the ever-growing separation of the haves & the havenots), and has many ongoing pleasures: Alice Brady's stunning comic turn (a 1930's highlight) + William Powell's stellar display of his class act mixed with his flair for physical comedy + Carole Lombard as the most extreme airhead of her tragically short career + Eugene Pallette as a frustrated toad + Mischa Auer as a nitpicking gorilla. And it features one of the best farewell scenes in cinema: "and so...goodbye..." and the drape flutters; our man is gone. They really don't make 'em like this anymore.
...and what about...
The Prisoner of Shark Island (John Ford)
In the ghastly U.S. tradition of The Scottsboro Boys and the West Memphis 3 comes this historic miscarriage of justice: Dr Samuel Mudd, wrongly convicted of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, is incarcerated in a Florida hellhole. The man battles sharks, deprivation, sadistic guards (one chillingly portrayed by John Carradine at his absolute skinniest) and an outbreak of yellow fever before the government finally admits their mistake and says sorry. This is one of John Ford's few swipes at America (well...American arrogant leaders anyway), and has some brilliant sequences (the escape attempt is stunning, all silence and mottled gloom). Yes, there is some unfortunate twaddle (the ever-so upset little woman at home + the cringiest of racial stereotypes + "Dixie" being played way too often) but overall, this exciting, well-crafted and educational movie deserves more applause from John Ford fans and everybody else too.
...not to mention...
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (Lothar Mendes)
This is a whimsical fantasy (taken from an H.G. Wells short story) that poses a fascinating question: If you had the power to change the world, what would it look like? Roland Young is the little Mr Nobody (British to his bootstraps + shackled at birth to the class system + knows his place) who is suddenly granted Ultimate Power by The Gods...bit by bit, his understanding of The True World Order expands, and he decides to remodel it to his version of Right & Proper... unfortunately, he suffers from the same petty desires and selfishness that we all do. With excellent SFX (well...okay... excellent for the 1930's) and the twinkling trio of Roland (in a rare leading role) & Ralph Richardson & Ernest Thesiger adding eccentric charm, the timing of this Humanist message was perfect: by 1936, there had been 3 years of Hitler-in-Power & the horrors of WWII were 3 years away. One of the most prescient films ever made.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Cain and Mabel (Lloyd Bacon)
A subpar screwball rom-com from the Golden Era. Marion Davies is a dancer in a Broadway show + Clark Gable is a boxer...they can't stand each other...therefore they fall in love...but romance isn't good for their careers...their managers & dependants try to foul it up...yes, it all works out nice. While Clark gives it his 1930's best & Allen Jenkins provides his usual laffs simply through delivery & Robert Paige hoofs up a storm, Marion's heart just doesn't seem to be in it (she retired from movies the following year). The two musical numbers are awful and awfully long, and the director shows no flair for comic timing (even the double-takes just hang there). The main handicap is the script: it begins weakly and continues that way, setting up potentially-funny situations, then apparently doesn't know what to do with them. While screwball comedies are supposed to be absurd, they are not meant to be senseless.
My Top 10 Films of 1936
 |
| Greta talks about her life with a eunuch boyfriend. |
#02 A Dodsworth (Wyler)
#03 A Mr Deeds Goes to Town (Capra)
#04 A- Libeled Lady (Conway)
#05 A- Modern Times (Chaplin)
#06 A- These Three (Wyler)
#07 A- Sabotage (Hitchcock)
#08 A- Fury (Lang)
#09 A- The Man Who Could Work Miracles (Mendes)
#10 A- The Prisoner of Shark Island (Ford)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- After the Thin Man (Van Dyke)
#12 B+ Desire (Borzage)
#13 B+ The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Hathaway)
#14 B+ The Devil-Doll (Browning)
#15 B+ The Road to Glory (Hawks)
#16 B+ Camille (Cukor)
#17 B+ The General Died at Dawn (Milestone)
#18 B+ Charlie Chan at the Opera (Humberstone)
#19 B+ Rembrandt (Korda)
#20 B+ Three Men on a Horse (LeRoy)
#21 B+ Our Relations (Lachman)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Swing Time [Fred & Ginger are terrific but Victor & Helen are too much. And there's a black-face number.]
> B Charlie Chan's Secret [good time Charlie with a seance, a creepy house, a tricky murder and no No.1 son]
> B Bullets or Ballots [Warners gangster pic that may have hit harder if Eddie G and Bogie had swapped roles]
> B The Ex-Mrs Bradford [OK screwball murder-mystery that follows the Thin Man formula a little too closely]
> B Dracula's Daughter [vampire story given an interesting spin...but not quite interesting enough]
> B The Charge of the Light Brigade [you have to wade through a lot of sludge to get to the good bits]
> B The Story of Louis Pasteur [more Hollywood history than a man's story, but still mildly involving]
> B San Francisco [as long as I can leave the room when Jeanette starts trilling, this is quite entertaining in its way]
> B The Princess Comes Across [fluffy rom-com that snaps in half when it turns into a murder-mystery]
> B The Petrified Forest [I know this is sacrilege but...doesn't Bogie overdo it? A lot?]
> B Secret Agent [where John Gielgud clearly demonstrates that he is no action hero or romantic leading man]
> B The Man Who Changed His Mind [mad scientist movie that slightly overdoes the mad stuff]
> B- Theodora Goes Wild [a screwball comedy for people who enjoy hearing fingernails down a blackboard]
> B- Things to Come [ambitious sci-fi that keeps making the same point over and over and over]
> B- Come and Get It [how are we supposed to accept that Edward Arnold's son would be Joel McCrea?]
> B- The Devil is a Sissy [Freddie + Jackie + Mickey + a 6-toed foot are the only reason to see it]
> B- His Brother's Wife [Barbara & Robert were madly in love when they made this...no wonder they broke up]
> B- Banjo on My Knee [the sappy tale of illiterate jug-swiggers who can see the lighter side of drowning]
> B- Tarzan Escapes [if you can accept the offhand racism and animal cruelty, this is an OK addition to the franchise]
> B- The Great Ziegfeld [a 3 hour(!!!) musical biopic where, in spite of Fanny Brice & Ray Bolger, I had two naps]
> B- The Bride Walks Out [Barbara Stanwyck poorly served by her director, screenwriter and co-stars]
> C The White Angel [tells pious lies about Florence Nightingale to the point of near-parody]
> C Three Smart Girls [for fans of Deanna Durbin's operatic gymnastics...I can't stand 'em]
> C Little Lord Fauntleroy [I nearly fwow up every time the kid refers to his birdbrained mummy as "Dearest"]
> C The Moon's Our Home [unfunny rom-com that features a rare Margaret Sullavan performance fail]
> C Dimples [Shirley Temple: can't act, can't sing, can dance a little and was already past her prime at 8 years old]
> C Girls' Dormitory [Simone Simon's breakthrough...if you accept that, I've got some real estate I want to sell you]
> C Anthony Adverse [141 minutes of seat-fidgeting boredom, partially rescued by the villains]
> C The Walking Dead [a thriller with lots of shadows but it races to the finish and forgets to punish all the villains]
> D Cain and Mabel [A Personal Unmentionable]
> D Stage Struck [movie musical blighted by a singing quartet called The Yacht Club Twerps]
> D Romeo and Juliet [that which we call a rose by any other name would stink]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1936 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Adventure in Manhattan (Ludwig); Ceiling Zero (Hawks); Craig’s Wife (Arzner); Devil’s Squadron (Kenton); Exclusive Story (Seitz); Follow the Fleet (Sandrich); Forgotten Faces (Dupont); The Garden of Allah (Boleslawski); Go West, Young Man (Hathaway); The Golden Arrow (Green); The Gorgeous Hussy (Brown); The Invisible Ray (Hillyer); Laburnum Grove (Reed); The Last of the Mohicans (Seitz); The Last Outlaw (Cabanne); Lloyd’s of London (King); Love on a Bet (Jason); Love on the Run (Van Dyke); The Man Who Changed His Mind
(Stevenson); Mary of Scotland (Ford); Meet Nero Wolfe (Biberman); Men are Not Gods (Reisch); The Mill on the Floss (Whelan); My American Wife (Young); One Rainy Afternoon (Lee); Pennies from Heaven (McLeod); Petticoat Fever (Fitzmaurice); Piccadilly Jim (Leonard); Pigskin Parade (Butler); The Plainsman (DeMille); Private Number (Del Ruth); Rendezvous (Howard); Seven Sinners / Doomed Cargo (De Courville); Showboat (James Whale); Small Town Girl (Wellman); Smartest Girl in Town (Santley); Special Investigator (King); Stowaway (Seiter); The Texas Rangers (Vidor); To Mary – with Love (Cromwell); Trouble for Two (Rubin); Under Two Flags (Lloyd); The Unguarded Hour (Wood); Valiant is the Word for Carrie (Ruggles); Winterset (Santell); A Woman Rebels (Sandrich)
Best Performances of 1936
Walter Brennan in Come and Get It
Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times
Gary Cooper in Mr Deeds Goes to Town
Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild
Greta Garbo in Camille
Walter Huston in Dodsworth
Charles Laughton in Rembrandt
Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey
Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur
William Powell in My Man Godfrey
Louise Rainer in The Great Zeigfeld
But how about...
William Powell & Myrna Loy & Spencer Tracy & Jean Harlow in Libeled Lady
While every old movie fan enjoys this film when they see it, it rarely appears in their Top 10 Great Screwball Rom-Coms list. But this is MGM comedic product in its absolute prime: fast-paced, blatantly implausible (and it doesn't matter), sarcastic wisecracks peppered about, pratfalls when called for but never overdone, sophistication & silliness, kissing in the moonlight & a sock on the jaw. But what really makes this sparkle is the cast, all 4 of the stars at their very best (and master character actor Walter Connolly in support). William & Myrna are old hands at the partnership to'n'fro, but Spence & Jean match them in timing, delivery and generosity (nobody tries to steal a scene...although William's fly-fishing slapstick comes mighty close). And if you really are a fan, the real life stuff makes it poignant: the four actors were the best of friends, William fell in love with & became engaged to Jean, but tragically Jean died the next year. Only 26 years old, she was buried in the wedding dress she wears in this film.
...and what about...
Marlene Dietrich in Desire
In this breezy rom-com, Marlene plays the sexiest jewel thief / con artist ever unleashed on man. And the poor man in particular is All-American Aw-Gee-Shucks Gary Cooper, who takes one look, licks his lips and immediately realises what he has lucked into. Marlene makes the character transitions from cunning vamp to light comedienne, from romantic leading actress to dramatic leading actress, all carried out in a subtle, underplayed way. She doesn't need to work at any of them, and she meshes all together into one believable, interesting persona. One of Marlene's most endearing performances, and certainly her most-faceted...here, the actress acts rather than just standing still for her Svengali, as he fetishistically dresses her in shadows & smoke.
...not to mention...
Sylvia Sidney in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
This performance kicked-off a two-year run of classic movies for Sylvia (Fury + Sabotage + You Only Live Once + Dead End), before her star started to fall. While her greatest performance remains 1931's An American Tragedy, it was in TTotLP where the underrated actress demonstrated her range. Often playing second-fiddle to the men, and trapped in a life of hardship & bleakness, Sylvia branches out here and plays a backwoods girl who is trapped in a life of hardship & bleakness...but this time, she escapes it, regardless of what the domineering men in her life think or do about it. She is sweet but determined, innocent but smart, compassionate but cold when needs be. Called upon to run an emotional marathon while the men fuss 'n' fight in the usual movie way, Sylvia shows us that if she'd been given stronger, more complex roles, she could have been one of the Stanwyck/Hepburn/Davis greats.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Melvyn Douglas in Theodora Goes Wild
SO annoying...and, even though that was what the role called for (which in itself is stupid...how can we be expected to put up with an annoying person for an entire movie?), a charismatic performer would still make him someone worth spending some time with (y'know, like Cary Grant often did). But Melvyn, in his 30's & 40's light comedic roles was ALWAYS annoying (Ninotchka & Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House & Too Many Husbands etc etc). The man didn't really shine until he left films for 10 years, got old and returned as a dramatic character actor (Billy Budd & Hud & I Never Sang for My Father etc etc). In TGW, he refuses to accept being told no, drowns out conversation with smarmy chitchat and, worst of all, whistles up a storm (you'll never want to hear "Pop Goes the Weasel" again), driving anyone with sense up the bloody wall, aggravating and infuriating wherever he goes. An absolute pain in the arse.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1936
 |
| Although his bid for Prime Minister failed, Gary continued to spruik his Replace-the-Dole scheme. |
#02 Gary Cooper in Mr Deeds Goes to Town
#03 William Powell in My Man Godfrey
#04 Walter Huston in Dodsworth
#05 The ensemble cast of Libeled Lady
#06 Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times
#07 Margaret Seddon & Margaret McWade in Mr Deeds Goes to Town
#08 Marlene Dietrich in Desire
#09 Sylvia Sidney in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
#10 Greta Garbo in Camille
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Eugene Pallette in My Man Godfrey
#12 Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey
#13 John Carradine in The Prisoner of Shark Island
#14 Joan Blondell in Stage Struck
#15 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in Swing Time
#16 Merle Oberon & Miriam Hopkins & Joel McCrea in These Three
#17 Peter Lorre in Secret Agent
#18 Mischa Auer in My Man Godfrey
#19 Spencer Tracy in Fury
#20 William Powell & Myrna Loy in After the Thin Man
#21 Charles Laughton in Rembrandt
#22 Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse
#23 Carole Lombard in The Princess Comes Across
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Walter Brennan in Come and Get It [does a yumpin' yiminy crazy Swede accent...oh dear]
> Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur [this time, he doesn't overdo the accent...but he's still no great shakes]
> Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld [too afraid to raise her voice lest she shatters]
> Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild [desperately seeking Cary]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1936 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava)
SILVER: Dodsworth (William Wyler)
BRONZE: Mr Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Gary Cooper (Mr Deeds Goes to Town)
SILVER: William Powell (My Man Godfrey)
BRONZE: Walter Huston (Dodsworth)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Marlene Dietrich (Desire)
SILVER: Sylvia Sidney (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine)
BRONZE: Greta Garbo (Camille)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Eugene Pallette (My Man Godfrey)
SILVER: John Carradine (The Prisoner of Shark Island)
BRONZE: Peter Lorre (Secret Agent)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Alice Brady (My Man Godfrey)
SILVER: Joan Blondell (Stage Struck)
BRONZE: Gale Sondergaard (Anthony Adverse)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: William Powell & Myrna Loy & Spencer Tracy & Jean Harlow (Libeled Lady)
SILVER: Margaret Seddon & Margaret McWade (Mr Deeds Goes to Town)
BRONZE: Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers (Swing Time)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Desmond Tester (Sabotage)
SILVER: Bonita Granville & Marcia Mae Jones (These Three)
BRONZE: Freddie Bartholomew & Jackie Cooper & Mickey Rooney (The Devil is a Sissy)
The Alternate Razzies for 1936 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Cain and Mabel (Lloyd Bacon)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Melvyn Douglas (Theodora Goes Wild)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Norma Shearer (Romeo and Juliet)
