Random Thoughts

Each Dawn I Die. William Keighley. 1939.

Cagney!

And he’s not a crook!? Is that even legal!?

OK, but he’s sentence anyway. *phew*

(I didn’t know it’s a sci-fi movie — he’s sentenced for drunken driving (and killing some other people while driving (it’s a frame!)), and as we all know, that just doesn’t happen in the US. Killing somebody (if you’re driving a car) is more like a youthful lark kind of thing in the US court system, I think.)

This is great! It’s so noir it’s leaking ink.

He said it! He said the line!

I love this movie.

Man, the casting here is great. It’s got like … a dozen? great guys totally basking in their roles as tough/not-so-tough hoodlums in jail. It’s so much fun to watch.

The bit that feels false is the bit with the warden: He’s tsk tsks the beating of prisoners, but he puts them into “The Hole” (where they’re chained in an awkward position, in darkness, all day) — he’s a total monster. But he’s also this avuncular figure. Like… somehow that makes the torture better? It just makes it more gruesome.

Fan. tastic.

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.

Bulldog Drummond’s Bride. James P. Hogan. 1939.

I ordered the DVD… but apparently it never arrived? Can’t find it now anyway. Fortunately, this movie is in the public domain, so it’s on youtube.

So this was a whole series of movies?

So it’s more like a serial than a proper movie, and this one kinda starts er in the middle. Well, it’s a new mystery, but it’s assumed that we know who all these characters are?

This is pretty amusing.

I like this! It’s cheap and cheery, quite original and thoroughly amusing. Sure, it’s not, like, more well made than it has to be, but still.

It’d be a lot more fun to watch in a restored condition, though. Things are a bit vague on the screen sometimes… but I guess there’s not much of a chance of that happening, since it’s in the public domain.

(Unless the BFI or somebody decides to spend money on it.)

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.

Bachelor Mother. Garson Kanin. 1939.

WON”T ANYBODY FEED THE BABY

I’m getting anxious.

Anyway, this is most amusing.

And kinda nightmarish: She’s totally trapped: Bullied, threatened, hounded into taking care of a baby that’s not hers.

This could easily have been a kafkaesque drama with just a less bouncy soundtracks.

FINALLY SOME FOOD

This is a very funny screwball comedy. But it’s just missing that certain little something that would make is a classic. Ginger Rogers is wonderful here (the mixture of cynical savvy and wide eyed wonder), and David Niven plays his role perfectly, but it’s one of those movies where you see how every scene could have really sparkled if there’d been more chemistry.

Or better lines.

But it’s good! I enjoyed it a lot.

It’s about the wonderful healing powers of lying.

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.

Five Came Back. John Farrow. 1939.

Oh, Lucille Ball in a dramatic part? I think I’ve seen her only in comedies?

This looks like a pretty low budget movie? I mean, just by how awkward these shots are — it’s like nobody had time to do any blocking, and everybody’s hidden behind something else. Or perhaps the cinematographer just sucks.

Yup; guessed it:

Although primarily filmed on a back lot, Five Came Back overcame some of the limitations of its low-budget.

But I’m digging this. It’s so… earnest.

It’s got the classic catastrophe movie structure — first half the movie is spent introducing the characters (and there’s a lot of complicated relationships and intrigue), and then the catastrophe, and then it’s all about how to survive the catastrophe.

It’s efficiently done, because this is a pretty short movie, but it doesn’t feel hurried.

But I kinda lost interest somehow? It might just be me; I’m a bit distracted.

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.