July - December 2017 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN FROM JULY TILL DECEMBER: 118
(see the film posters below, arranged in watching order)
NEW-TO-ME: 93
REWATCHES: 25
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN: 41
*The second part of 2017 saw an increase in visits to the movie theater. Of the 25 films I watched in JULY, 16 films I saw on the big screen (15 at the wonderful Filmoteca and 1 at the Open Air Film Festival at Montjuïc Castle). The reason for this significant increase was the amazing retrospective of John Ford vs. Howard Hawks they offered at the Filmoteca (running also through August and the beginning of September).
Before I discovered the Filmoteca, I hardly went to the cinema anymore. I love seeing a film on the big screen but I don't really like commercial theaters and I just don't care much for blockbusters or contemporary films. I know there are plenty of good modern art house films but since I have a preference for the classics and there is soooo much to see already, I'd rather watch a classic film at home. But now I discovered the Filmoteca! I love it when people visit a film theater because they really want to see the movie, not because they want to have a night out with friends and the cinema seems like a good place for socialising. And thank God for popcorn-less movie theaters, there is not even a food and beverage stand here! In the two viewing rooms of the Filmoteca everybody pays attention, the only noise you hear is a response to a certain scene, and lots of times there's even applause once the end credits roll. It really feels like you're in a room filled with like-minded people, lovers of Classic Hollywood, and I especially like the fact that these classic films take the elderly (65 yrs +) people out of their homes and bring them into the film theater, something that is not so common with contemporary films.
Since I hardly have time to rewatch films (because there are soooo many unseen classic films), it is so nice to be able to see films on a rewatch at the movie theater. Of the following 16 films I watched on the big screen in July, 8 were rewatches (the first 8 films listed), including The Apartment seen at Montjuïc Castle:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (with James Stewart and John Wayne)
The Night of the Iguana (with Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr)
His Girl Friday (with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell)
Mogambo (with Clark Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly)
Ball of Fire (with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper)
The Quiet Man (with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara)
Roman Holiday (with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck)
The Apartment (with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine)
Suddenly, Last Summer (with Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn)
The Last Hurrah (with Spencer Tracy)
My Son John (with Van Heflin)
The Hurricane (with Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour)
The Wings of Eagles (with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara)
Barbary Coast (with Edward G. Robinson, Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea)
Wagon Master (with Ben Johnson and Joanne Dru)
Scarface (with Paul Muni and Ann Dvorak)
Among the Filmoteca rewatches were some favourites of mine (His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire and Roman Holiday) and it was great to see them on the big screen for the first time. I also love The Quiet Man and was happy to see it in such a good print. The Night of the Iguana was a nice surprise, I had almost no recollection of it and it was really funny. Of the films I saw for the first time I thought Scarface was the best.
What else did I watch this July? Two Dana Andrews films (Zero Hour! with Linda Darnell and Deep Waters with Jean Peters), two James Stewart films (Speed with Wendy Barrie and Magic Town with Jane Wyman), and two Brian Donlevy films (Impact with Ella Raines and The Great McGinty with Muriel Angelus). Furthermore I watched Forsaking All Others with Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery, Love Is A Racket with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Ann Dvorak, and Fury At Furnace Creek with Victor Mature and Coleen Gray. I really liked the atmospheric Deep Waters, and Jimmy and Jane in Magic Town were cute together. The Great McGinty was a bit of a disappointment but I liked Impact, and Fury At Furnace Creek was truly compelling.
*In AUGUST I watched 24 films in total. And the visits to the Filmoteca continued due to the Ford vs. Hawks special. I saw 18 films on the big screen in total, of which 11 were rewatches. You can see the list below, starting with the 11 rewatches:
Rio Bravo (with John Wayne, Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson)
The Night of the Hunter (with Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish)
How Green Was My Valley (with Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pidgeon)
Bringing Up Baby (with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant)
Red River (with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift)
River Of No Return (with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum)
The Searchers (with John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter)
The Big Sleep (with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall)
Donovan's Reef (with John Wayne and Elizabeth Allen)
Hatari! (with John Wayne and Elsa Martinelli)
To Have and Have Not (with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall)
El Dorado (with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum)
Sergeant York (with Gary Cooper and Joan Leslie)
The Grass Is Greener (with Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum)
The Informer (with Victor McLaglen and Heather Angel)
The Grapes of Wrath (with Henry Fonda)
Monkey Business (with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers)
Rio Grande (with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara)
Among the Filmoteca rewatches were again favourites of mine (Rio Bravo, Bringing Up Baby and How Green Was My Valley). I hadn't seen Red River in a while and it was as good as I hoped it would be, though I have to say the ending is a bit too happy. I also loved to see Bogart and Bacall on the big screen. Of the new-to-me films shown at the Filmoteca Sergeant York, The Grapes of Wrath, The Informer and Rio Grande stood out. I had no expectations of Monkey Business and it wasn't good but still entertaining. All in all, it was such a treat to see all these Ford and Hawks films on the big screen and I felt really fortunate.
There were 6 more films in August I watched at home: Woman Against Woman with Herbert Marshall and Mary Astor, All In A Night's Work with Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, Forbidden with Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou, Lilly Turner with Ruth Chatterton and George Brent, The Animal Kingdom with Leslie Howard, Ann Harding and Myrna Loy, and Other Men's Women with Mary Astor and Grant Withers. Of these films Forbidden and Other Men's Women were the stand-out films. No doubt the greatest appeal of Forbidden by Frank Capra is Barbara Stanwyck and she turns in a fine performance. The pre-code film Other Men's Women benefits from natural performances by Withers and Astor and from a compelling story and beautiful cinematography.
*SEPTEMBER saw a significant decline in movie-watching. Having moved from Amsterdam to Barcelona in February, I had kept my Amsterdam apartment in case Barcelona wouldn't work out. But soon enough I decided that I wanted to stay in Spain and make Barcelona my new home for an indefinite period of time so I gave up my Amsterdam apartment. Most of September I spent in my native country to arrange the move, relocating my stuff to my parents' basement (or what was left of it after having drastically given away/thrown away most of my things). I only watched 6 films this month and I was very lucky that I was able to catch 3 films at the Filmoteca at the beginning of September before I went to Amsterdam and one film at the end of the month after I came back to Barcelona. All 4 films were rewatches (the first three films were still part of the Ford vs. Hawks special which came to an end this September):
My Darling Clementine (with Henry Fonda, Victor Mature and Linda Darnell, one of my all-time favourite westerns)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, so great to see a musical on the big screen and it was even better than the last time I watched it)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (with John Wayne and Joanne Dru, great feel-good western with beautiful cinematography, and one of Wayne's most likeable characters)
Witness For the Prosecution (with Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, first-rate courtroom drama infused with a good dose of humour and with Laughton's character being an absolute delight)
The other two films I watched were Rings On Her Fingers with Gene Tierney and Henry Fonda (enjoyable, seen this on a plane ride) and Great Guy with James Cagney and Mae Clarke (entertaining but forgettable).
*Unfortunately OCTOBER was not a very relaxed month either due to the hunt for a new apartment in Barcelona (we had to leave our temporary apartment at the beginning of November) but I still managed to see a total of 20 films. I did not see a single classic film on the big screen. This month I decided to see more of Ann Harding, Ann Dvorak and Kay Francis.
The Ann Harding films were 5 in total: The Right To Romance with Robert Young (more enjoyable than I thought it would be), The Witness Chair with Walter Abel (unremarkable, though Harding looks quite beautiful here), Prestige with Melvyn Douglas (not very appealing, uninspiring dialogue, and Douglas is miscast and gives a poor performance), Devotion with Leslie Howard (only recommendable because of the great Robert Williams), and Gallant Lady with Clive Brook (original version of Stanwyck's Always Goodbye, with most natural performances from Harding and Brook).
I watched 6 Ann Dvorak films: Cafe Hostess with Preston Foster (not very exciting but mildly enjoyable), Stranger in Town and Crooner, both with David Manners (Crooner being the better and more enjoyable one), Blind Alley with Chester Morris and Ralph Bellamy (never gets really thrilling but still entertaining), The Strange Love of Molly Louvain with Lee Tracy (this film really lifts off when Tracy makes his entrance and his repartee with Dvorak is so wonderful), and I Was an American Spy (with Dvorak being a bit older and in a more dramatic role; not very exciting but watchable).
Kay Francis was my most watched actress this month with a total of 7 films: Give Me Your Heart and Secrets of An Actress, both with George Brent (both enjoyable, Give Me Your Heart being the better one), Dr. Monica with Warren William (pre-code film dealing with pregnancy out of wedlock), The White Angel with Ian Hunter (Francis in an unusual role as Florence Nightingale), For the Defense with William Powell (a lesser Francis/Powell collaboration), Women Are Like That with Pat O'Brien (battle of the sexes film, with O'Brien's character being close to obnoxious at times), and Man Wanted with David Manners (not very good but with some nice photography by Gregg Toland).
Furthermore I saw two films starring James Cagney: Taxi! with Loretta Young (pretty exciting pre-code with great chemistry between the leads) and Lady Killer with Mae Clarke (good fun, with Cagney kissing Clarke's boob!).
*So in NOVEMBER we moved house to a lovely apartment very close to the beach and I found time to watch 24 films.
What did I watch? Four Barbara Stanwyck films (Golden Boy with William Holden, Illicit and Ten Cents a Dance, both with Ricardo Cortez, and B.F.'s Daughter with Van Heflin), five Deanna Durbin films (Nice Girl? with Franchot Tone, Every Sunday (short) with Judy Garland, First Love with Robert Stack, Three Smart Girls and Three Smart Girls Grow Up), two John Barrymore films (Long Lost Father and The Great Man Votes), two films starring Carole Lombard (Supernatural with Randolph Scott and I Take This Woman with Gary Cooper), and two films with George Brent (The Right To Live and Snowed Under). Furthermore I watched a Chaplin short (The Adventurer), a Shirley Temple film (Bright Eyes), a film with Lee Tracy (Turn Back the Clock), a Jean Arthur film (The Defense Rests), a William Powell/Myrna Loy film (Evelyn Prentice), a film starring Rosalind Russell (Craig's Wife), a Richard Barthelmess film (Four Hours To Kill!) and a film starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray (Above Suspicion).
Of all these films I thoroughly enjoyed the Durbin flicks First Love, Three Smart Girls and Three Smart Girls Grow Up. Durbin is so delightful and she's such a natural actress. Also Four Hours To Kill!, Evelyn Prentice and Turn Back the Clock are more-than-average films and recommendable. I saw only one film on the big screen at the Filmoteca this month, the acclaimed Applause, and it was a first watch for me and very enjoyable.
*Coming to the last month of the year, DECEMBER, I didn't watch as many films as I would have liked to but I still saw 19 films in total. I didn't find time, though, to see the Christmas classics and that was a bit of a bummer.
The film that came closest to being a Christmas film was Never Say Goodbye with Errol Flynn and Eleanor Parker, set around Christmas time and with Flynn even disguising himself as Santa Claus. I watched two more Flynn films this month: Another Dawn with Kay Francis and Ian Hunter (meh drama that couldn't be saved by the appealing lead stars) and Edge of Darkness with Ann Sheridan (engrossing and suspenseful war drama with Flynn in a more serious role).
I saw another Kay Francis film, King of the Underworld with Humphrey Bogart (short and enjoyable film with a less glamorous looking Francis), and two other Ann Sheridan films, Good Sam with Gary Cooper (seen on a plane ride and truly enjoyed it) and Honeymoon For Three with George Brent (has some funny moments but overall it's silly). I also saw Brent starring in Desirable with Jean Muir (disappointing but a step closer to completing Brent's filmography). Muir played opposite of Ricardo Cortez in the enjoyable The White Cockatoo (not in the least scary, though).
Furthermore I watched a Bette Davis boxing drama with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart (Kid Galahad, entertaining, with Davis in a sweet and likeable role), a romantic comedy with Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas (Third Finger, Left Hand, funny and thoroughly enjoyable), a film noir with John Payne and Coleen Gray (Kansas City Confidential, well-executed heist story with an excellent performance by Payne), a film noir with Edmond O'Brien and Ella Raines (The Web, entertaining plot, with some nice banter between the leads), a scary movie with Deborah Kerr (The Innocents, not as creepy as I thought it would be but great gothic foreboding atmosphere), and the acclaimed Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator (not the masterpiece I was expecting but the famous final speech is beautiful and still relevant today). I ended the month with three Clark Gable films: Men in White with Myrna Loy, To Please a Lady with Barbara Stanwyck, and Polly of the Circus with Marion Davies. All three films are not very exciting. To Please a Lady has the biggest appeal because of Stanwyck and the impressive racing sequences.
I only watched two films on the big screen at the Filmoteca in December, both were rewatches: It's Always Fair Weather with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, and the famous West Side Story. The latter was just amazing to see at the cinema, a wonderful experience.
So that rounds up my movie year of 2017. Can't wait to watch a lot more movies this year!
