Random Thoughts

Nancy Drew… Reporter. 1939. William Clemens.

I mean… I didn’t expect much from this movie — it’s a shortish, goofy B movie thing. But it seems odd to me how little of the Nancy Drewiverse they’ve retained? I mean… I don’t remember much of Nancy Drew… but didn’t she have a gal pal? And stuff? This just seems to be… kinda generic… “teenage girl detective” stuff?

I may be totally wrong, and this is canonical Nancy Drew.

Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this move: It’s a kids’ mystery movie, and the performances are pretty fun to watch. The mystery isn’t very mysterious.

This is a pretty amusing movie.

I mean, it’s not… good? But it’s amusing.

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.

Made For Each Other. John Cromwell. 1939.

Oh, I’ve seen this one before! And not too long ago, either. I wonder where…

Emacs knows everything. I watched this in… October? Last year?

Hey! I even blogged about it. This is a serious break-down in my movie methodology.

Oh well! Now it’s in 2K.

I’m liking it a lot more this time around.

OK, now I see what I was talking about in the previous blog. It’s really odd in that … there’s not much of anything going on. It seems like it’s aiming for screball comedy, but the timing is all off.

It’s like they could have just changed these scenes a smidgen, and it’d be hilarious. But instead the scenes just … sit there: They’ve got all the ingredients right, but it just doesn’t work.

So weird.

I can only imagine what Preston Sturges would have done with this material. It’s got scenes that should be hilarious, but instead are just kinda tepid. It’s got scenes that should be seething with righteous anger, but instead are just vaguely annoyed with the extreme injustice of what’s happening.

It’s a movie of squandered opportunities, but the performances are really good. Carole Lombard, or course, but also the smaller roles, like Louise Beavers.

Just when you think it’s gotten as bad as it’s going to get, it get worse.

Man.

I wonder whether there was something here at some point, but then was somehow ruined during the making.

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.

Honolulu. Edward Buzzell. 1939.

So much drama!

Heh. That was a good fake-out.

This is most amusing.

And horribly racist.

And that’s the main problem with this movie: Robert Young really isn’t that believable as somebody who’d people would go nuts for. I mean, he’s great and all, but imagine if this were Cary Grant instead.

And now there’s Eleanor Powell! She’s delightful.

It’s all delightful. I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling since this movie came on. It’s a perfectly fluffy little movie.

So the rest of the people are dressed up as movie stars, and Eleanor Powell shows up as… “The King Of Harlem”? I had to check whether that was actually a thing… and … it’s not?

Hm… Oh, it’s Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. It’s a good dance routine.

“And the way those kids dove after those pennies!”

I think this may be the most racist movie I’ve seen in quite a while!

(But Gracie Allen did say “I ran out of pennies, so I threw a five dollar gold piece and they never knew the difference.” And she’d wonderful.)

Eleanor Powell is amazing; I want to watch all her movies. But this is supposed to be a Hawaiian dance, and… did they choreograph this entire thing without once going to Hawaii? I know, it’s 1939, and the Japanese may bomb them, but… still!?

“You see, he’s only my brother by marriage. My father married my mother and he’s their son.”

This movie is hilarious. It doesn’t let up for a second — it’s silly the entire way through, and doesn’t even make a vague attempt at being respectable at any point.

It’s also really racist, way beyond what you’d expect of a movie from 1939, so you may want to avoid it, anyway.

This blog post is part of the 1939
series.