https://mediumhappi.org/?p=8496
- Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs: The first classic animated Disney film remains one of the best. And, for a child, most terror-filled. Ever notice how much old Walt loved to manipulate the orphaned-child genre? Mirror, mirror, on the wall…
- A Day At The Races: Marx Brothers at the peak of their powers. Includes a song-and-dance number performed entirely by, what were they called back then in polite company, “Negroes?” You’re darn tootin’ the Marx Brothers were woke!
- Captains Courageous: a.k.a. The Young Boy and The Sea. If you can buy Spencer Tracy as a Portuguese deck hand, then you’ll enjoy this tale of adventure and growing up.
- A Star Is Born: Fredric March in the ill-fated lover role. The best of the four?
Need to see: “The Awful Truth,” “The Life Of Emile Zola” (Best Picture winner), “Grand Illusion” (first foreign film to be nominated for an Oscar), “Stella Dallas” and, finally, “Broadway Melody of 1938” if only because Eleanor Powell was so far ahead of her time in terms of athleticism—and quite a looker, too, in a non-traditional Hollywood way. If you know the name Fred Astaire, then it behooves you to know Eleanor Powell. She was every bit his equal, the distaff version. Watch this:
Fred Astaire could (& did) dance with a broom & look magnificent. He danced well with all his partners (human & non), but Ginger Rogers was THE one who was the ‘shine’ to his ‘silk’.
Irene Dunn & Cary Grant were great together & played so well off each other that you could mistake them for a real married couple (like William Powell & Myrna Loy often were).
Barbara Stanwyck was great in Stella Dallas but don’t know how that plot would ‘play’ these days. I can envision the ranting over the ‘class differences’ & how dare ‘Hollywood’ dramatize that such a pairing was doomed. And did the ‘lower class’ Stella do the noble thing, even though she was the mother? Discuss.
Stanwyck could do it all – comedy, romance, drama, film noir. Well, I don’t remember her singing & dancing much (if at all) but the rest she had covered. She played the lovable heroine as well as the evil b*tch, both to perfection.
The comedy of the Marx Brothers is timeless even though their movies are definitely of their time. One of my very fave MB scenes is the one on a ship & “room service” & a very small cabin is involved. It’s silly & nonsensical & funny as hell. Which pretty much sums up the Marx Brothers. 🙂 As I grew older, I also got a kick out of poor put-upon Margaret Dumont.