March 2020 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN MARCH: 20
(see the film posters at the bottom of the post, arranged in watching order)
NEW-TO-ME: 19 (16 features & 3 shorts)
REWATCHES: 1
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN: 2
SILENT FILMS: 14 (11 features & 3 shorts)
SILENT FILMS: 14 (11 features & 3 shorts)
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: William Powell (4 in total)
MOST WATCHED ACTRESS: Lillian Gish (4 in total)
March marked the further outbreak of the coronavirus on a worldwide scale with many daily new cases and deaths and with the World Health Organisation declaring the disease officially a pandemic. It's hard to express my feelings and fears about the current situation. It's surreal and too big to fathom and it's like finding yourself in a disaster movie like Outbreak and Contagion (two modern films I watched recently). I live in Barcelona and the city that I love has become a ghost town (like so many other big cities in the world), with Spain being in lockdown since mid-March. The whole situation makes us realise how much we take freedom of movement for granted. Fortunately I'm the indoorsy type. I'm someone who never gets bored, always has something to do, be it reading, writing, blogging, watching films, sleeping. But still, to have your movements restricted is so unfamiliar to us and pretty unsettling, even though we understand why these measures have to be taken.
The lockdown in Spain also had an immediate effect on classic film watching. I love to see classics on the big screen (what classic film fan doesn't?) but as all cinemas were forced to close their doors, the same went for my beloved Filmoteca. I missed March showings of the scheduled classics Touch of Evil, The Fountainhead, The Graduate, The Birds and All About Eve. Touch of Evil, The Fountainhead and The Graduate would have been first-time watches for me. Of the April program I'm also going to miss films that are lined up for the first half of the month (the lockdown is now scheduled until the 11th of April but will probably be prolonged). This is really a bummer because it includes It's a Wonderful Life and Ben Hur (1959). I hope the Filmoteca will show all films at a later date.
So let's see what I watched this March. I didn't watch as many films at home as I would have liked to, due to tiredness and stress (apartment hunting and coronavirus), but in the end I still managed to see a decent amount of 20 films (17 features and 3 shorts). My main focus was silent film. (I wrote a post about silent cinema here.) I also wanted to explore more of Lillian Gish's filmography and watched a total of 4 Gish films. She really is a treasure! Completely mesmerising and in a league of her own, Gish is one of the best things silent film has to offer. I so enjoy watching her. She has the face of an angel but at the same time there's something quirky and defiant about her. I also found myself enjoying Marion Davies quite a bit and watched 3 Davies films this month. Besides the 14 silent films (including 3 Buster Keaton shorts) I watched 6 talkies of which 2 were seen on the big screen. I will come to the talkies later.
Here's the list of silent films (features and shorts) arranged in watching order:
Lonesome (with Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon)
True Heart Susie (with Lillian Gish and Robert Harron)
Show People (with Marion Davies and William Haines)
The Red Mill (with Marion Davies and Owen Moore)
Enchantment (with Marion Davies and Forrest Stanley)
La Bohème (with Lillian Gish, John Gilbert and Renée Adorée)
The Goat (with Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox)
The High Sign (with Buster Keaton and Bartine Burkett)
The White Sister (with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman)
Hard Luck (with Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox)
Her Night of Romance (with Ronald Colman and Constance Talmadge)
The Last Command (with Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent and William Powell)
Beggars of Life (with Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen)
Way Down East (with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess)
Of the four films starring Lillian Gish my favourite is The White Sister with Ronald Colman. The story is compelling. A rich father with two daughters favours the younger one and when he dies, the older sister shows her bad stepsister streaks. The younger daughter (Gish) has found real love with soldier Colman (whom the older daughter loves too) and when he goes off on an expedition to Africa and is presumed dead, Gish is so miserable that she turns to a life devoted to the church and God. These story elements may not be that original (the wicked sister feels very Cinderella-like and the soldier returning while the heroine has resorted to another way of life, reminded me of Waterloo Bridge) but it really doesn't matter because the love story is very well executed and I was totally hooked. Gish and Colman make their tragic romance very believable and their love for each other is palpable. I cried with the scene where Colman tricks Gish into visiting him. He tries to pursuade her to choose him over God but when he realises it's no use and gives in, kissing the hem of Gish's nun's habit and crying, I cried too. The scene where Gish kisses Colman's portrait also totally choked me up. Colman looks really good this young but Gish ... Oh Gish! She's so captivating. The production values are very good (filmed on location in Italy) and the score by Garth Neustadter is deeply moving and wonderful. It's the score composed for the restoration and I didn't mind that it sounds pretty modern like a John Williams or John Barry score. There's one scene, where a boy ties a girl's hair to a chair, I didn't like at all and was rather annoying.
I also really loved True Heart Susie, a sweet film with a happy ending. All scenes with Gish's face on screen are wonderful. The early parts of this film reminded me a bit of Anne of Green Gables, with Gish and Robert Harron being childhood friends and the way they look as teenagers, Gish wearing her hair in braids. It is cute how they almost kiss in a couple of scenes. I don't find Harron particularly appealing as a leading man but Gish is a scene-stealer so he doesn't really stand a chance anyway.
MOST WATCHED ACTRESS: Lillian Gish (4 in total)
March marked the further outbreak of the coronavirus on a worldwide scale with many daily new cases and deaths and with the World Health Organisation declaring the disease officially a pandemic. It's hard to express my feelings and fears about the current situation. It's surreal and too big to fathom and it's like finding yourself in a disaster movie like Outbreak and Contagion (two modern films I watched recently). I live in Barcelona and the city that I love has become a ghost town (like so many other big cities in the world), with Spain being in lockdown since mid-March. The whole situation makes us realise how much we take freedom of movement for granted. Fortunately I'm the indoorsy type. I'm someone who never gets bored, always has something to do, be it reading, writing, blogging, watching films, sleeping. But still, to have your movements restricted is so unfamiliar to us and pretty unsettling, even though we understand why these measures have to be taken.
The lockdown in Spain also had an immediate effect on classic film watching. I love to see classics on the big screen (what classic film fan doesn't?) but as all cinemas were forced to close their doors, the same went for my beloved Filmoteca. I missed March showings of the scheduled classics Touch of Evil, The Fountainhead, The Graduate, The Birds and All About Eve. Touch of Evil, The Fountainhead and The Graduate would have been first-time watches for me. Of the April program I'm also going to miss films that are lined up for the first half of the month (the lockdown is now scheduled until the 11th of April but will probably be prolonged). This is really a bummer because it includes It's a Wonderful Life and Ben Hur (1959). I hope the Filmoteca will show all films at a later date.
So let's see what I watched this March. I didn't watch as many films at home as I would have liked to, due to tiredness and stress (apartment hunting and coronavirus), but in the end I still managed to see a decent amount of 20 films (17 features and 3 shorts). My main focus was silent film. (I wrote a post about silent cinema here.) I also wanted to explore more of Lillian Gish's filmography and watched a total of 4 Gish films. She really is a treasure! Completely mesmerising and in a league of her own, Gish is one of the best things silent film has to offer. I so enjoy watching her. She has the face of an angel but at the same time there's something quirky and defiant about her. I also found myself enjoying Marion Davies quite a bit and watched 3 Davies films this month. Besides the 14 silent films (including 3 Buster Keaton shorts) I watched 6 talkies of which 2 were seen on the big screen. I will come to the talkies later.
Here's the list of silent films (features and shorts) arranged in watching order:
Lonesome (with Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon)
True Heart Susie (with Lillian Gish and Robert Harron)
Show People (with Marion Davies and William Haines)
The Red Mill (with Marion Davies and Owen Moore)
Enchantment (with Marion Davies and Forrest Stanley)
La Bohème (with Lillian Gish, John Gilbert and Renée Adorée)
The Goat (with Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox)
The High Sign (with Buster Keaton and Bartine Burkett)
The White Sister (with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman)
Hard Luck (with Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox)
Her Night of Romance (with Ronald Colman and Constance Talmadge)
The Last Command (with Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent and William Powell)
Beggars of Life (with Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen)
Way Down East (with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess)
Of the four films starring Lillian Gish my favourite is The White Sister with Ronald Colman. The story is compelling. A rich father with two daughters favours the younger one and when he dies, the older sister shows her bad stepsister streaks. The younger daughter (Gish) has found real love with soldier Colman (whom the older daughter loves too) and when he goes off on an expedition to Africa and is presumed dead, Gish is so miserable that she turns to a life devoted to the church and God. These story elements may not be that original (the wicked sister feels very Cinderella-like and the soldier returning while the heroine has resorted to another way of life, reminded me of Waterloo Bridge) but it really doesn't matter because the love story is very well executed and I was totally hooked. Gish and Colman make their tragic romance very believable and their love for each other is palpable. I cried with the scene where Colman tricks Gish into visiting him. He tries to pursuade her to choose him over God but when he realises it's no use and gives in, kissing the hem of Gish's nun's habit and crying, I cried too. The scene where Gish kisses Colman's portrait also totally choked me up. Colman looks really good this young but Gish ... Oh Gish! She's so captivating. The production values are very good (filmed on location in Italy) and the score by Garth Neustadter is deeply moving and wonderful. It's the score composed for the restoration and I didn't mind that it sounds pretty modern like a John Williams or John Barry score. There's one scene, where a boy ties a girl's hair to a chair, I didn't like at all and was rather annoying.
I also really loved True Heart Susie, a sweet film with a happy ending. All scenes with Gish's face on screen are wonderful. The early parts of this film reminded me a bit of Anne of Green Gables, with Gish and Robert Harron being childhood friends and the way they look as teenagers, Gish wearing her hair in braids. It is cute how they almost kiss in a couple of scenes. I don't find Harron particularly appealing as a leading man but Gish is a scene-stealer so he doesn't really stand a chance anyway.
In La Bohème John Gilbert's character is not really likeable and he looks at Gish as if he's about to jump his prey. I also found the Count just too creepy and sleazy and would have preferred this character to be a bit more nuanced. Still, this silent was really enjoyable with some great scenes. Love the one where Gish is bringing her stuff to the pawnshop and it breaks one's heart to see she also pawns her coat. Also love the scene where she warms her hands and body at Gilbert's stove, even though I didn't like Gilbert's behaviour. It's too bad our romantic hero is not decent and even abusive. It would have been so nice if Gish's gentle character would have had a kind, considerate and soft-natured love interest. Gish is really enchanting. Again! I have no idea whether the version I watched carried the original score but I loved the piano music.
Way Down East was the last film I watched this month. I really wanted to see it but also knew that it was going to be a long watch of two-and-a-half hours. But I watched it when I wasn't sleepy so I got through it alright. The runtime could have — and should have — been cut short by taking all the scenes out with the annoying minor characters. They were clearly added to provide comic relief but these characters are really unappealing and do very little to move the story forward. Having said that, I was here for Lillian Gish and boy, did she deliver again. My heart broke when she baptised her sick child and I love all moments with her on screen. Also love the way she looks and the clothes she's wearing. I had of course seen the photos of Richard Barthelmess carrying Gish across the ice and had anticipated a sad ending. Fortunately it was a happy one but it was a bit of a bummer the leads had to share it with the moron side characters. Apparently director Griffith wanted the ending on the ice to be as realistic as possible, waiting for an actual blizzard to occur in order to achieve maximum effect. Gish and her co-workers suffered for art's sake. I read that Gish herself wanted to make that sacrifice to get the ice floe scene right. She prepared for the now famous sequence by jumping in an ice bath every morning and walking around in the cold without wearing a coat. She even went so far as to put her hand and hair in the freezing water during the shooting of the scene. Anyway, it's a shame that this isn't the masterpiece I was hoping for but it's mainly because of the reason already stated.
So far the Gish films and now onto the Marion Davies ones. I finally watched Show People. It's one of those silent films that's on everyone's watchlist and receives favourable reviews. Well, I also totally enjoyed this comedy/romance film. Davies is a hoot, a great comedian, and her facial expressions are hilarious at times. She's a bit wacky and I like that. This story is pretty straightforward: a girl makes it big in Hollywood, develops an attitude and forgets about who and what really matters. There are no big surprises here and of course there's a happy ending but I love how satisfying the last 10 minutes are. It happens a lot that the ending is rushed or disappointing — even if it's predictable — but here it is just right. Nice cameos by among others Charlie Chaplin, John Gilbert, director King Vidor himself ánd Marion Davies herself.
I craved another Davies comedy after Show People and though I had never heard of The Red Mill before, I decided to watch it because it's set in my native country. It has Dutch stereotypes — the silly traditional Dutch caps, the skating on the frozen canals, windmills and the milking of the cow. The intertitles are pretty funny, also weirdly worded at times. I enjoyed the romance between Davies and Owen Moore and the mistaken identity bit. Some nice photography in the haunted mill with the huge windmill wings. Davies is really really funny, she's good at slapstick too and would have made Buster proud.
My third and last Davies film this month, Enchantment, feels a bit incoherent but Davies has never looked lovelier in her flapper outfits and the art deco sets are gorgeous. There's also a stage presentation of The Sleeping Beauty incorporated in the plot which is a bit long but looks good as well.
I watched four other silent features. The acclaimed Lonesome was not as great as I'd hoped it would be and as the raving reviews would let me believe. I do love the simple story of a lonely man and woman — both with monotonous jobs — falling in love, who in the end find out they had been living in the same hotel in adjacent rooms all along. Some wonderful cinematography by Gilbert Warrenton with inventive use of colour. This silent film has three scenes with audio dialogue and it's pretty awful. Badly scripted and stiffly acted. It also takes you out of the flow and the magic of the silent images. I have to say that I didn't find the leads (Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon) that winsome but it's still a cute little film.
After watching The White Sister I wanted to see more of Ronald Colman and chose Her Night of Romance. But I was so sleepy while watching this that it took me about an hour to see the last 10 minutes or so because I kept dozing off. Fortunately it had nothing to do with the film itself because it's a lovely little comedy and Colman oozes charm here and looks so good. I had to get used to Constance Talmadge but in the end she'd grown on me and she's actually a good comedian. Might watch this again some day.
The Last Command is a remarkable silent film with a compelling story. No doubt Emil Janning's Oscar-winning performance is great, especially when he faces his downfall and humiliation. But also praise for William Powell and Evelyn Brent. All 3 actors look physically great in their roles, in particular Brent in her dark outfit at the beginning of the film. The production values are high, the photography and music score are beautiful. The ending is impressive and one of the most fulfilling endings I've seen in a long time and it elicited a tear. Should really check out more of Josef von Sternberg's work.
Beggars of Life is one of the many silent movies I had never heard of until I stumbled upon it by accident. I decided to watch it since I still wanted to catch some more silent films before the month was over. It's my first Louise Brooks film and I like her (especially in the boyish outfit with the cap) but I have to say she is not as expressive as other favourite silent actresses (Gish and Davies). I was engaged in the story but hadn't expected it to become so grim. Like in Safe in Hell and The Story of Temple Drake (I watched Temple Drake this month as well, see notes on the film further down this post) we are introduced to a group of sleazy men (Wallace Beery is one of them) who wouldn't mind to have their way with Brooks. I was waiting for Brooks to get physically assaulted by Beery so I was thoroughly surprised by the film's sudden shift in tone and by the redemptive actions of Beery. When he decides to give the young couple a break, all because of love, it gets a bit sentimental and I'd almost hoped it would have stayed grim. So the denouement felt a bit off, not in line with what had come before it. But I like happy endings and I was glad nobody assaulted Brooks. There are some terrific train sequences, by the way. And my fave scene: the one where Richard Arlen and Brooks make themselves comfortable in a haystack. The opening scene with their meeting is pretty cool too.
Furthermore I watched three silent shorts, all starring Buster Keaton.
The Goat is very enjoyable, starting with a great scene where Keaton stands waiting in line for a loaf of bread but queues up behind two tailor's dummies in front of a clothes store. Most of the film is dedicated to the chase between Keaton and several police men. There are some great gags and funny moments (notably the scene where Keaton sits on a life-size clay horse about to be revealed by the artist, while the clay slowly collapses and finally falls off the pedestal). I didn't know that the famous photo of Keaton behind bars was from this film. There's also a great memorable shot of Keaton sitting on the cowcatcher of the train moving towards the camera with high speed. Though the romance doesn't play an important part, Keaton does get the girl at the end, while throwing her over his shoulder and entering a furniture shop with a sign saying, "You furnish the girl, we'll furnish the home."
The High Sign has an appealing story and I like the fact that it has a plot to begin with instead of just being a string of visual gags. There's a lot to love here. The opening scene with the newspaper, the simple gun/banana switch, the fact that the expected slip on the banana peel didn't happen, the great dog/bell scene. The final sequence in the house with trapdoors and secret passages is really inventive and executed with perfect timing. Also love the Blinking Buzzard salute! Another brilliant Buster short and he looks beautiful as ever. But Hard Luck is a bit disappointing. Not much more than gags strung together and a lot of slapstick. Little inventiveness but still, it's Buster and I did have fun. But among his impressive oeuvre this ranks somewhere near the bottom.
So let's take a look at the talkies I watched this month.
Fortunately I saw two films at the Filmoteca before the lockdown: Pursued and The Big Sleep (my only rewatch this month).
Way Down East was the last film I watched this month. I really wanted to see it but also knew that it was going to be a long watch of two-and-a-half hours. But I watched it when I wasn't sleepy so I got through it alright. The runtime could have — and should have — been cut short by taking all the scenes out with the annoying minor characters. They were clearly added to provide comic relief but these characters are really unappealing and do very little to move the story forward. Having said that, I was here for Lillian Gish and boy, did she deliver again. My heart broke when she baptised her sick child and I love all moments with her on screen. Also love the way she looks and the clothes she's wearing. I had of course seen the photos of Richard Barthelmess carrying Gish across the ice and had anticipated a sad ending. Fortunately it was a happy one but it was a bit of a bummer the leads had to share it with the moron side characters. Apparently director Griffith wanted the ending on the ice to be as realistic as possible, waiting for an actual blizzard to occur in order to achieve maximum effect. Gish and her co-workers suffered for art's sake. I read that Gish herself wanted to make that sacrifice to get the ice floe scene right. She prepared for the now famous sequence by jumping in an ice bath every morning and walking around in the cold without wearing a coat. She even went so far as to put her hand and hair in the freezing water during the shooting of the scene. Anyway, it's a shame that this isn't the masterpiece I was hoping for but it's mainly because of the reason already stated.
So far the Gish films and now onto the Marion Davies ones. I finally watched Show People. It's one of those silent films that's on everyone's watchlist and receives favourable reviews. Well, I also totally enjoyed this comedy/romance film. Davies is a hoot, a great comedian, and her facial expressions are hilarious at times. She's a bit wacky and I like that. This story is pretty straightforward: a girl makes it big in Hollywood, develops an attitude and forgets about who and what really matters. There are no big surprises here and of course there's a happy ending but I love how satisfying the last 10 minutes are. It happens a lot that the ending is rushed or disappointing — even if it's predictable — but here it is just right. Nice cameos by among others Charlie Chaplin, John Gilbert, director King Vidor himself ánd Marion Davies herself.
I craved another Davies comedy after Show People and though I had never heard of The Red Mill before, I decided to watch it because it's set in my native country. It has Dutch stereotypes — the silly traditional Dutch caps, the skating on the frozen canals, windmills and the milking of the cow. The intertitles are pretty funny, also weirdly worded at times. I enjoyed the romance between Davies and Owen Moore and the mistaken identity bit. Some nice photography in the haunted mill with the huge windmill wings. Davies is really really funny, she's good at slapstick too and would have made Buster proud.
My third and last Davies film this month, Enchantment, feels a bit incoherent but Davies has never looked lovelier in her flapper outfits and the art deco sets are gorgeous. There's also a stage presentation of The Sleeping Beauty incorporated in the plot which is a bit long but looks good as well.
After watching The White Sister I wanted to see more of Ronald Colman and chose Her Night of Romance. But I was so sleepy while watching this that it took me about an hour to see the last 10 minutes or so because I kept dozing off. Fortunately it had nothing to do with the film itself because it's a lovely little comedy and Colman oozes charm here and looks so good. I had to get used to Constance Talmadge but in the end she'd grown on me and she's actually a good comedian. Might watch this again some day.
The Last Command is a remarkable silent film with a compelling story. No doubt Emil Janning's Oscar-winning performance is great, especially when he faces his downfall and humiliation. But also praise for William Powell and Evelyn Brent. All 3 actors look physically great in their roles, in particular Brent in her dark outfit at the beginning of the film. The production values are high, the photography and music score are beautiful. The ending is impressive and one of the most fulfilling endings I've seen in a long time and it elicited a tear. Should really check out more of Josef von Sternberg's work.
Beggars of Life is one of the many silent movies I had never heard of until I stumbled upon it by accident. I decided to watch it since I still wanted to catch some more silent films before the month was over. It's my first Louise Brooks film and I like her (especially in the boyish outfit with the cap) but I have to say she is not as expressive as other favourite silent actresses (Gish and Davies). I was engaged in the story but hadn't expected it to become so grim. Like in Safe in Hell and The Story of Temple Drake (I watched Temple Drake this month as well, see notes on the film further down this post) we are introduced to a group of sleazy men (Wallace Beery is one of them) who wouldn't mind to have their way with Brooks. I was waiting for Brooks to get physically assaulted by Beery so I was thoroughly surprised by the film's sudden shift in tone and by the redemptive actions of Beery. When he decides to give the young couple a break, all because of love, it gets a bit sentimental and I'd almost hoped it would have stayed grim. So the denouement felt a bit off, not in line with what had come before it. But I like happy endings and I was glad nobody assaulted Brooks. There are some terrific train sequences, by the way. And my fave scene: the one where Richard Arlen and Brooks make themselves comfortable in a haystack. The opening scene with their meeting is pretty cool too.
Furthermore I watched three silent shorts, all starring Buster Keaton.
The Goat is very enjoyable, starting with a great scene where Keaton stands waiting in line for a loaf of bread but queues up behind two tailor's dummies in front of a clothes store. Most of the film is dedicated to the chase between Keaton and several police men. There are some great gags and funny moments (notably the scene where Keaton sits on a life-size clay horse about to be revealed by the artist, while the clay slowly collapses and finally falls off the pedestal). I didn't know that the famous photo of Keaton behind bars was from this film. There's also a great memorable shot of Keaton sitting on the cowcatcher of the train moving towards the camera with high speed. Though the romance doesn't play an important part, Keaton does get the girl at the end, while throwing her over his shoulder and entering a furniture shop with a sign saying, "You furnish the girl, we'll furnish the home."
So let's take a look at the talkies I watched this month.
Fortunately I saw two films at the Filmoteca before the lockdown: Pursued and The Big Sleep (my only rewatch this month).
Pursued's greatest asset is James Wong Howe. Wow! What stunning cinematography! So many great shots. Everything looked especially good on the big screen in a clear digital print. I also love how the funeral scene is photographed. Teresa Wright has top billing and I love how prominent the female roles are in this noir/western, also Judith Anderson plays an important role and she's excellent. I was eagerly waiting for the big reveal at the film's ending but it's a bit disappointing. The last five minutes or so are rushed — I thought there was more to come — still, this is a great film with a compelling story (I'm a sucker for family dramas and feuds) and Robert Mitchum looks good!
The Big Sleep I watched after a bad day at work. I went to the cinema alone because I knew a classic film could lift my spirits. So thank you, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall! Their sizzling chemistry leapt off the big screen (I feel very fortunate to have seen this twice at the Filmoteca now) and I sat there curled up in the chair with a big smile on my face. The script has so many good and quotable lines and I love the scene with the telephone prank where Bogie and Bacall really seem to enjoy themselves. With this rewatch I did another attempt to fully follow and understand the convoluted plot, but halfway I let it go and just enjoyed the nice dialogue and Bogie and Bacall together. And Bogart is so attractive here!
4 more talkies: The Story of Temple Drake (with Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan and Jack La Rue) and three William Powell films, which makes Powell my most watched actor of March.
I decided to watch The Story of Temple Drake because there was a very clear print online. I've also been meaning to see this because of the positive reviews. This pre-code, based on the novel by William Faulkner, is apparently one of the reasons the Hays Code was enforced. There's a rape scene off-screen and some of the content is pretty racy. It reminded me a bit of Safe in Hell, especially the scenes with the sleazy men. Miriam Hopkins can be a hit-and-miss for me, I find her at times too hysterical. But here she gives an excellent performance, in particular during the hearing. Also, right after the rape, when she sits slumped in the passenger's seat next to creep Jack La Rue, she has this numb expression on her face and it looks so real. Other star of this drama is the stellar cinematography by Karl Struss (who also shot Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans). There are some beautiful dark scenes with single light sources, e.g. a lighted match. The scene where Hopkins makes her first screen appearance is also great, just seeing her hand wrapped around the door. Her leading man is William Gargan who is not very exciting but I like him. And Florence Eldridge as the wife of one of the sleazeballs is very good. Recommended viewing!
The Last Command made me want to see more of William Powell, preferably some lighthearted films. Private Detective 62 is a little B-programmer with Powell being his suave self and a brunette Margaret Lindsay. She's a bit bland but makes an okay couple with Powell. This film is nothing special but I enjoyed it a lot.
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford has Powell paired with Jean Arthur. Again this is a run-of-the-mill mystery film but Powell and Arthur have great chemistry and make this a worthwhile watch. Add Eric Blore as the butler and James Gleason as the inspector to the mix and you have a recipe for a fun time. The plot is a bit convoluted and I stopped trying to make sense of it and just enjoyed the performances.
Star of Midnight with Powell and Ginger Rogers is yet another detective story. I actually prefer this to The Ex-Mrs. Bradford. I love Jean Arthur but somehow Ginger Rogers' sparkling performance here engaged me more. It's the usual amateur sleuthing mystery with Powell doing what he's best at. His debonair manner charms me every time and he seems to have chemistry with most of his female co-stars. Rogers is no exception. Story-wise it's not very exciting but that's not what we're here for. Too bad this is the only film Powell and Rogers made together. I would have loved to see more of them as a sleuthing couple. Memorable: Powell taking a shower while being interrogated by police inspectors present in the bathroom; and Ginger's dress sense.
So that's a round-up again! As of April I'm on a two-month sabbatical to concentrate on other things, e.g. following an online course (had decided this already a while ago). Not having to work and the fact that we're in lockdown will give me more time to watch films. I guess people all over the world have plenty of time to watch films during their lockdowns so I hope you will also seek out the classics and find some comfort and distraction in them. Stay tuned because I will do a post on my recommendations for uplifting films during these dark times. Also don't forget to stay indoors and stay healthy!
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*The White Sister (1923) with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman, theatrical poster;
*The White Sister (1923) with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman;
*The White Sister (1923) with Lillian Gish;
*The White Sister (1923) with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman;
*True Heart Susie (1919) with Lillian Gish; (gif by me)
*True Heart Susie (1919) with Lillian Gish; (gif by me)
*La Bohème (1926) with Lillian Gish and John Gilbert;
*La Bohème (1926) with Lillian Gish;
*Way Down East (1920) with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess;
*Way Down East (1920) with Lillian Gish;
*Way Down East (1920) with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess;
*Show People (1928) with Marion Davies and Dell Henderson;
*Show People (1928) with Marion Davies, William Haines and Charlie Chaplin;
*The Red Mill (1927) with Marion Davies and Owen Moore;
*The Red Mill (1927) with Marion Davies and Owen Moore;
*Enchantment (1921) with Marion Davies; (screenshot by me)
*Enchantment (1921), Art Direction by Joseph Urban; (screenshot by me)
*Enchantment (1921) with Marion Davies and Forrest Stanley; (screenshot by me)
*Lonesome (1928) with Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon;
*Her Night of Romance (1924) with Ronald Colman and Constance Talmadge;
*The Last Command (1928) with William Powell and Evelyn Brent;
*Beggars of Life (1928) with Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen;
*Beggars of Life (1928) with Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen;
*The Goat (1921) with Buster Keaton;
*The Goat (1921) with Buster Keaton; (gif by me)
*The High Sign (1921) with Buster Keaton;
*Hard Luck (1921) with Buster Keaton;
*Pursued (1947) with Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright; (gif by me)
*Pursued (1947) with Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright and Judith Anderson; (gif by me)
*The Big Sleep (1946) with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart;
*The Story of Temple Drake (1933) with Miriam Hopkins;
*The Story of Temple Drake (1933) with Miriam Hopkins and Jack La Rue;
*The Story of Temple Drake (1933) with Miriam Hopkins and William Gargan; (gif by me)
*Private Detective 62 (1933) with William Powell and Margaret Lindsay;
*The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936) with William Powell and Jean Arthur;
*Star of Midnight (1935) with William Powell and Ginger Rogers.