Random Thoughts

Road Show. Hal Roach. 1941.

I love it! It’s one of those screwball comedy things. It’s absolutely insane.

This is another movie from the absurd box set, and the audio/video quality is a lot better than anybody has a reason to expect.

It’s a low budget movie, so I guess it’s a “B movie” of its time, but it’s so inventive and cooky. It doesn’t really make much sense, but if you go along with the antics, it’s something else.

And! It’s got a random musical scene! With a four-man black singing troupe! The Charioteers? It’s positively pinko commie.

(It does bring us back to that eternal question: Is it more racist to make a movie without any black actors, or a movie with some black actors, where at least a couple of them do the totally standard “wide-open eyes and totally a coward’ thing? And watermelon? Not to mention the Native American thing. But is it!?)

No mention of the European Situation, though.

Popular movies in February 1941 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	15154	8.0	The Lady Eve
	2375	7.4	The Strawberry Blonde
	300	7.2	The Ghost of St. Michael’s
	373	7.0	Back Street
	1729	6.8	Western Union
	1540	6.7	Tobacco Road
	357	6.7	Meet Boston Blackie
	223	6.7	Nice Girl?
	443	6.7	Cheers for Miss Bishop
	332	6.7	Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Come Live With Me. Clarence Brown. 1941.

This is another pro-immigration movie, with a refugee from Austria who’s being deported, and the very odd hi-jinx that ensue. (Which include her married boyfriend frittering and his wife (and her boyfriend) and you know.)

It’s obliquely making references to the Situation in Europe.

It’s very risque, and Verree Teasdale’s dialect is so perfectly mid-Atlantic that I would have taken this for a much earlier movie if I didn’t know better. And she’s wonderful.

I had a look at James Stewart’s imdb listing, and it’s empty after this film until 1946. So I thought, wha? They sent as famous people as James Stewart into the military? Not only that, but:

In October 1940, Stewart was drafted into the United States Army but was rejected for failing to meet the weight requirements for his height for new recruits—Stewart was 5 pounds (2.3 kg) under the standard. To get up to 143 pounds (65 kg), he sought out the help of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s muscle man and trainer Don Loomis, who was noted for his ability to help people gain or lose weight in his studio gymnasium.

He got in, became a fly boy, and finally convinced the powers that be that he should do real service and flew a number of raids.

I had no idea.

ANYWAY! You have to admire Hollywood movies like this: They have such clarity of vision. Instead of cluttering things up with extraneous characters and complications, they keep the focus on what matters: The love story, and how to bring the star-crossed lovers together for real, somehow.

Popular movies in January 1941 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	11859	7.6	High Sierra
	3375	7.3	Buck Privates
	695	7.2	The Face Behind the Mask
	203	7.1	Play Girl
	1270	7.1	Come Live with Me

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Kitty Foyle. Sam Wood. 1940.

I guess you could call this a light-hearted romp… or loathsome misogynistic propaganda.

But that’s only the intro, and then we’re into the main part of the movie, and things get less divisive, I guess, but… I don’t understand these people at all. “My favorite movie of all time” “Another Philadelphia Story” “Probably Ginger Roger’s best film” What are they seeing that I’m not?

I totally see what they’re going for: A serious romantic film about a life-changing dilemma. It’s got Ginger Rogers in the main role. This should be great!

But it’s not. I hate using the b-word, but it’s downright boring. I just have zero interest in the proceedings, and that’s either on me or it’s because this just isn’t a very good film. Or perhaps I just don’t like any of the male leads, but especially the Wyn guy.

I can’t stop imagining what a director like Douglas Sirk could have done with this material. It would have been glorious.

But here Ginger tells whatsisface they can’t get married because of class differences. “Is that all?” “We’re both the same color, if that’s what you mean.”

Zing.

Heh. The DVD includes two animated shorts that both do the “Kitty Foiled” pun:

Popular movies in December 1940 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	51856	8.0	The Philadelphia Story
	913	7.5	Murder Over New York
	260	7.2	The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
	2379	7.1	Kitty Foyle
	480	7.0	Pride of the Bowery
	4217	6.9	Go West

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Little Nellie Kelly. Norman Taurog. 1940.

So Irish. So very Irish.

But this is an odd duck. It takes us through the American immigration process in excruciating detail. Is it meant as a manual for Irish immigrants? It’s based on a Broadway show from 1922… so what was the reason for the movie version in 1940? (And according to this the entire first act (i.e., all the immigration stuff) wasn’t there in the original version.) There’s an enormous number of scenes of American patriotism… so was the point to appeal to the faction who wanted to join in the WWII festivities, or the ones who wanted to stay out of it?

So many questions.

This isn’t a good movie, though.

Popular movies in November 1940 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	73812	7.8	Fantasia
	8824	7.7	The Letter
	7738	7.6	The Mark of Zorro
	5481	7.3	The Bank Dick
	824	6.9	Arizona
	356	6.7	Tin Pan Alley
	370	6.5	Little Nellie Kelly
	354	6.4	Bitter Sweet
	215	6.3	Lady with Red Hair
	321	6.2	Phantom of Chinatown

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Christmas in July. Preston Sturges. 1940.

Oh my god. This is one of those spiralling-out-of-control comedies with plenty of room for embarrassment, which I have to watch from behind a pillow. But it’s really good. Such great lines and so likeable characters.

Is this one of those films they show on TV every Xmas? Because it’d be perfect for that. The first time you watch it, it’s really too exciting, but on subsequent viewings you can just revel in the fantasy.

It’s a great little movie.

There’s a couple of references to The War: They decide to not, perhaps, go on holiday to Europe, and the swell cop alternatively calls the capitalist big-wig “Hitler” and “Mussolini”. As he should!

Popular movies in October 1940 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	146464	8.5	The Great Dictator
	9511	7.6	The Thief of Bagdad
	2474	7.6	Christmas in July
	2953	7.1	The Long Voyage Home
	550	7.0	Arise, My Love
	660	7.0	Escape
	1292	6.9	One Night in the Tropics
	1392	6.8	Knute Rockne All American
	570	6.8	Third Finger, Left Hand
	891	6.8	Seven Sinners

This blog post is part of the Decade series.