Random Thoughts

This is another B movie from that DVD box set. The transfer is pretty good here — while some of these have been sourced from torrents, this looks like a straight from film to DVD transfer. Hm… it might have been done via high quality video tape… There’s some typical tape ghosting going on.

It was nominated for a couple of music-related Oscars, and the music is indeed pretty good.

There isn’t much of a story here. It’s basically just a filmed “minstrel show” (i.e., white performers in blackface) with some not-very-developed drama to pad the movie out some.

The singing’s OK, but the “minstrel” comedy bits are offensively boring. All the jokes seem to be basically “aren’t those black people stupid, eh?”

But it’s not… horribly bad? I was entertained. Perhaps the biggest problem is the lead, Benny Fields, who is as expressive as a two by four. And probably as smart.

Plenty of good supporting performances keep the movie somewhat afloat. For instance, Judy Clark is so effervescently bubbling that you have to see it to believe it.

Minstrel Man. Joseph H. Lewis. 1944.

Popular movies in August 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	3338	7.8	Hail the Conquering Hero
	2941	7.5	The Pearl of Death
	1597	7.5	In Society
	1048	7.0	Black Magic
	490	6.8	When Strangers Marry
	706	6.4	Casanova Brown
	366	6.4	The Doughgirls
	725	6.3	The Great Moment
	382	6.2	The Falcon in Mexico
	272	6.2	Maisie Goes to Reno

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Yay! Douglas Sirk! Mah favourite. I was a bit in the mood for a comedy after the last movie, but whatevs.

I’m such a fan that I apparently bought two copies:

Wow. This has Edward Everett Horton in a kinda-sorta serious role. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

I mean, it’s Anton Chekhov (it’s The Shooting Party, which you’ve probably read), so there’s a limit to how serious it can be.

Unfortunately, this DVD isn’t particularly restored. The video looks fine, but the audio is awfully hissy. I can sometimes be difficult to pick out the witty Russian repartee.

I have to say that this seems like an extremely weird movie to make in 1944. It’s a very straightforward adaptation without any wartime allusions that I can see… I mean, it’s not that all movies during this period were “relevant” or anything, but this is supremely incongruous.

And it’s just so ordinary. I would not have guessed that this was Sirk if I didn’t know. I can’t really see anything much of interest here. It’s so cookie cutter.

Chekhov’s sensibilities don’t quite line up with Sirk’s. Sirk would be on Olga’s side, but Chekhov doesn’t really allow that.

Summer Storm. Douglas Sirk. 1944.

Popular movies in July 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	332	7.9	Block Busters
	1816	7.4	The Seventh Cross
	1037	6.9	Wilson
	1938	6.9	The Canterville Ghost
	303	6.9	Summer Storm
	1099	6.9	Wing and a Prayer
	312	6.8	Mr. Winkle Goes to War
	281	6.3	The Hairy Ape
	878	6.2	Dragon Seed
	353	6.2	Step Lively

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Can any powder-box really be too gay?

How odd. This DVD starts with a five minute overture (i.e., some swelling orchestral music playing while we’re shown some stills). I wonder whether this was part of the original movie theatre experience… I guess it could have been, because it’s long enough that it may have been shown with an intermission? So it’s an all night extravaganza?

It was nominated for all the Oscar awards, but only the score won.

From the initial scenes (and the score), I thought this was going to be three hours of women looking pensively out the window while waiting for their soldier husbands to come back from the war.

And there’s certainly a bit of that, but this is such a delightful surprise of a movie. It’s funny and it’s more than a bit cynical.

And that cast. Claudette Colbert, Monty Woolley (resplendent in his whiskers as always) and… Shirley Temple! (And a cast of thousands, including Agnes Moorehead and Lionel Barrymore.)

But the real star here is Hattie McDaniel. Any time she’s on the screen it’s showtime.

But I found it hard to stay interested. While there’s a lot of fun scenes, it sort of lost me around the one hour mark.

I can well imagine that this is a well-loved movie, but I don’t think there’s enough dynamics here. It’s very much steady state throughout most of the nine hours this movie goes on.

I mean, if they’d cut the middle fifteen hours, and just compressed the total thirtynine hours into a more reasonable two hours, then there’s definitely enough wonderful scenes to have carried a film.

But, like I said, I lost interest at the seventythree hour mark, and then the remaining two hundred and seventy two hours just kinda seemed a drag.

But I feel really bad about not enjoying this movie more than this, because there’s a lot to like.

Since You Went Away. John Cromwell. 1944.

Popular movies in June 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	281	8.0	Follow the Leader
	3421	7.6	Since You Went Away
	2231	7.2	The Mask of Dimitrios
	1259	7.1	The Way Ahead
	271	6.7	Home in Indiana
	880	6.7	Christmas Holiday
	1139	6.5	Bathing Beauty
	431	6.3	Hotel Reserve
	816	6.2	Days of Glory
	242	5.9	Meet the People

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Ah, finally! Back to the 40s! I only have the TV on on weekends, and the past few weekends have been busy with concerts and parties and other boring stuff.

This is a proper grandiose, romantic war movie, with stoic British women pining (and nursing) away at home while brave British soldiers bravely fight against the forces of evil.

This is the most patriotic movie in the history of patriotic movies. The flashbacks are all about how our romantic American protagonist is introduced to England, oh England, and we get a run-through of all British cool things ever. You can still hear the sound of British hearts swelling in the theatres this played at the time.

Or was the intended audience here Americans? And they didactically go through British history to tell them what they’re defending when they go off to Europe?

The scene where the guy basically kidnaps her (to marry her) is a bit grating. It’s meant to be all romantic, of course, but it’s a bit Baby it’s cold outside. If that one had gone “I’ll keep you forcibly on this train” instead of “Listen to the fireplace roar”.

Anyway!

The best line is when Nanny tells Our Heroine “You should go visit him in France. It’s time you put a baby in my arms.”

It’s a brilliantly manipulative movie. Almost perfect.

The White Cliffs of Dover. Clarence Brown. 1944.

Popular movies in May 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	17663	7.9	Gaslight
	4267	7.8	Mr. Skeffington
	3855	7.7	A Canterbury Tale
	3658	7.5	The Scarlet Claw
	1278	7.3	Between Two Worlds
	746	7.2	The Adventures of Mark Twain
	7905	7.2	Going My Way
	1111	7.1	The White Cliffs of Dover
	1071	7.1	Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
	372	6.7	Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble

This blog post is part of the Decade series.