April 2018 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN APRIL: 31
(see the film posters at the bottom of the post, arranged in watching order)
NEW-TO-ME: 29
REWATCHES: 2
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN: 3
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: Pat O'Brien (8 in total)
The biggest disappointment this month was the programming of classic films at the Filmoteca because there were so few. I saw 3 classic films on the big screen, about the only ones that were programmed. Fortunately two of those were favourites, Top Hat and The Gay Divorcee. Such great fun to see Fred and Ginger on the big screen, I couldn't be happier. Those two films were also the only rewatches this month. The third film seen on the big screen was the German classic Faust with live piano music. It didn't disappoint. The film was compelling and the cinematography was great.
I didn't go to see the Japanese classic Seven Samurai at the Filmoteca, mainly because of its length. Hopefully I can catch it some other time because now I already regret not having seen it. But I saw 31 films in total this month so I'm glad that I watched one film a day on average.
My most watched actor this month is Pat O'Brien, with a total of 8 films seen. See below the titles in the order in which I saw them:
The Great O'Malley (with Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart)
The Kid From Kokomo (with Joan Blondell and May Robson)
Bureau of Missing Persons (with Bette Davis)
San Quentin (with Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart)
Slim (with Henry Fonda and Margaret Lindsay)
American Madness (with Walter Huston and Constance Cummings)
Public Enemy's Wife (with Margaret Lindsay)
Secret Command (with Carole Landis and Chester Morris)
American Madness was a very nice surprise and by far the best film of them all. Walter Huston plays a typical Capra character, a bank president standing up for the little guy against corporate power. Both he and O'Brien give excellent performances. I loved the sets and the overhead mob shots during the bank run. I also really enjoyed The Great O'Malley and The Kid From Kokomo (thanks to the wonderful performance of Robson). Slim stood out because of its unusual story subject (the duties of the linemen who construct the power lines and do repairs on them, something I knew nothing about and thought was very exciting), and though Public Enemy's Wife was nothing special, I really enjoyed the romance between O'Brien and Lindsay.
Because I enjoyed American Madness so much, I decided to see two more films starring Huston. I watched The Criminal Code (with Constance Cummings) and The Star Witness (with Grant Mitchell), both had strong performances from Huston. I also saw two Warren William films (The Mind Reader with Constance Cummings and Under Eighteen with Marian Marsh). I really like William, also when he plays a slick character. He's perfectly cast in The Mind Reader as the swindler and smooth talker and he pairs nicely with Cummings. In Under Eighteen he doesn't have a lot of screen time, just enough to show the viewer that he's a bit of a creep. Notice the way he sizes Marsh up in that very first scene where he appears.
Furthermore I watched three films starring William Holden (Union Station and Force of Arms, both with Nancy Olson, and Father is a Bachelor with Coleen Gray), two films with Maureen O'Sullivan (The Voice of Bugle Ann with Lionel Barrymore and Woman Wanted with Joel McCrea), two films with Ann Sothern (The Judge Steps Out with Alexander Knox and Smartest Girl in Town with Gene Raymond), and two films starring Mary Astor (The Little Giant with Edward G. Robinson and And So They Were Married with Melvyn Douglas).
Of these films the biggest impression made The Judge Steps Out and Force of Arms. Both had a romance story I really liked. I also enjoyed Union Station and I'm glad I found Holden and Olson's other collaboration Submarine Command online (even though it's not a very good print). Will watch that later.
I also watched:
Love That Brute (with Paul Douglas and Jean Peters)
Mystery House (with Ann Sheridan)
Lucky Partners (with Ginger Rogers and Ronald Colman)
The Sisters (with Bette Davis and Errol Flynn)
Rendezvous (with William Powell and Rosalind Russell)
The Lady Consents (with Herbert Marshall and Ann Harding)
The Roaring Twenties (with James Cagney, Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart)
The Roaring Twenties was the stand-out film among these. Lucky Partners and The Sisters were disappointments, especially since I had been looking forward to watch them. Lucky Partners is really silly but I love the lead stars and they make it worthwhile, and Ginger looks best in the courtroom scene wearing the big hat. The Sisters has a great cast but the story is not very remarkable, dealing with the lives and loves of three sisters, and there's little character and story development. Still, I love how ordinary Bette's character is and how restrained her performance. I love the scenes where she says little but her eyes speak instead.
Mystery House and The Lady Consents were both unremarkable. Rendezvous benefits from the leading actors and their chemistry but I was disappointed with Russell's character and how there's nothing of the independent woman with a mind of her own. The code-breaking theme is exciting, though, and Powell is good, so suave and clever. Love That Brute is a fluffy comedy and I enjoyed the romance between Douglas and pretty Peters, even though they make an unlikely couple.
So overall it was a good film month despite the limited amount of trips I made to the Filmoteca. Hopefully it will improve the coming month.
NOTE: I don't log classic Hollywood documentaries in my Letterboxd diary but I want to mention here that I saw the documentary Red Hollywood on the big screen at the Filmoteca on the 19th of April, which was a nice viewing experience. The documentary was introduced by one of the directors present, Noël Burch, who spoke in French which the interpreter translated into Catalan. Since I don't understand much of French nor Catalan, most of the introduction was lost on me. I didn't find the documentary that well structured, it is pretty incoherent, but I did like all the movie clips and there were plenty of those. To name a few films where they had taken scenes from: Marked Woman, Song of Russia, The General Died At Dawn, Blockade, Body and Soul, The Pride of the Marines, He Ran All the Way (haven't seen it yet but they showed the ending and it was a major spoiler!), Johnny Guitar, et cetera.
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Top Hat (1935) with Fred Astaire;
*Top Hat (1935) with Ginger Rogers;
*The Gay Divorcee (1934) with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire;
*Faust (1926);
*The Great O'Malley (1937) with Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien;
*Bureau of Missing Persons (1933) with Bette Davis and Pat O'Brien;
*American Madness (1932) with Pat O'Brien, Sterling Holloway and Constance Cummings;
*The Mind Reader (1933) with Constance Cummings and Warren William;
*Under Eighteen (1931) with Marian Marsh and Warren William;
*Force of Arms (1951) with Nancy Olson and William Holden;
*Union Station (1950) with Nancy Olson and William Holden;
*The Judge Steps Out (1947) with Alexander Knox and Ann Sothern;
*The Little Giant (1933) with Edward G. Robinson and Mary Astor;
*And So They Were Married (1936) with Melvyn Douglas and Mary Astor;
*Lucky Partners (1940) with Ginger Rogers and Ronald Colman;
*The Sisters (1938) with Bette Davis;
*The Roaring Twenties (1939) with James Cagney, Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart.
