Random Thoughts

Oh. This is about some sports guy? Who got a disease named after him? And it was nominated for all the Oscars? But only won for “Best Film Editing”? And it’s directed by schmaltzmeister Sam Wood, who we previously saw in Our Town and Kitty Foyle?

I fear the absolute worst!

And, yes, Wood lays it on with a trowel. There’s barely a scene without a sentimental bed playing beneath. Cooper does his best, especially playing the teenage Gehrig, but it’s an uphill struggle.

This is a well-received movie, getting a 93% tomato rating. Naturally, since I didn’t enjoy this film at all, I’m just going to quote with the one reviewer that didn’t like it either:

Nominated for 11 Oscars (it won one, for best editing), The Pride Of The Yankees has a vaunted reputation as a sports-movie classic, perhaps because the only scene anyone remembers is Gary Cooper humbly, affectingly delivering Gehrig’s famed farewell address at Yankee Stadium. The film that surrounds that speech, however, is surprisingly dreary and lifeless, a slapped-together piece of studio hackwork that’s thick with sentiment and short on illuminating details about Gehrig’s life and career.

Word.

2.0.

Anyway, this does have some good melodramatic scenes (like when Cooper stands up to his mother on his wife’s behalf), but it’s surrounded my much tedium. I wonder whether the positive reception is more about the idea of a film about Lou Gehrig than the actual end result.

The Pride of the Yankees. Sam Wood. 1942.

Popular movies in July 1942 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	17470	7.9	The Magnificent Ambersons
	7960	7.8	The Pride of the Yankees
	320	7.2	The Pied Piper
	313	6.9	The Magnificent Dope
	789	6.7	Crossroads
	206	6.2	Calling Dr. Gillespie
	338	6.1	I Married an Angel
	1041	6.1	Invisible Agent
	388	6.0	Her Cardboard Lover

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

This movie won all the Oscars. So I approached this with some scepticism.

But it’s irresistibly charming. The actors playing the Minivers are absolutely wonderful, but there are some variable performances otherwise. The plot’s not quite what I expected, either…

Still, I don’t think this is quite as good as Wyler’s previous movie The Little Foxes. It’s still plenty great and very touching.

Mrs. Miniver. William Wyler. 1942.

Popular movies in June 1942 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	11977	7.6	Mrs. Miniver
	248	6.9	The Foreman Went to France
	546	6.7	The Big Shot
	214	6.6	The Affairs of Martha
	279	6.5	The Night Has Eyes
	261	6.4	Maisie Gets Her Man
	450	5.8	They All Kissed the Bride

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

This is from that collection of cheap b movies and features the Andrews Sisters.

This also has the fabulous Mary Wickes. She can liven up a movie just by being in the general vicinity of it, and when she’s on the screen, she’s just everything. And Shemp Howard is a perfect foil for her.

This is barely a movie, though. It’s a series of songs with some screwball stuff happening in between the numbers.

Which is fine by me; the is very easy on the brain. The music’s nice and the screwball stuff is amusing throughout. And occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

Everybody joins the army halfway through the film! This is very patriotic but structurally odd. It also means less Mary Wickes, which is never a good thing.

“I’ve sipped from many a cup, but never a mug like this.”

“That’s beautiful.”

Private Buckaroo. Edward F. Cline. 1942.

Popular movies in May 1942 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	11437	7.8	Yankee Doodle Dandy
	3079	7.5	In This Our Life
	880	7.2	Prelude to War
	2601	7.0	Tarzan’s New York Adventure
	352	7.0	Take a Letter, Darling
	730	6.9	This Above All
	1749	6.8	The Spoilers
	435	6.7	Let’s Get Tough!
	537	6.6	Grand Central Murder
	589	6.5	The Falcon Takes Over

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Yay! A real noir thriller!

Alan Ladd’s great as the taciturn assassin. I don’t think I’ve seen many movies with Veronica Lake, and she’s definitely of the “I’m standing here waiting until the other person finishes their line so that I can say my line” school of acting, but she’s fun. She’s certainly a better actor than some of the other characters in this movie.

The plot of the film is a literally literally in-credible series of koinkidinks, but hey, who cares. It’s kinda perfect anyway.

This Gun For Hire. Frank Tuttle. 1942.

Popular movies in April 1942 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	6387	7.5	This Gun for Hire
	1763	7.4	Larceny, Inc.
	928	7.2	My Favorite Blonde
	18263	7.2	Saboteur
	1425	7.1	One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
	519	6.9	Kid Glove Killer
	991	6.9	Moontide
	295	6.7	The Man Who Wouldn’t Die
	909	6.6	Rio Rita
	310	6.6	Alias Boston Blackie

This blog post is part of the Decade series.