So, with one thing (a wedding) and another (the film festival), and some scattered odds and ends (Pakula, Universal Monsters, Disney), I've fallen a couple of installments behind on my "monthly" retrospective of the films of 1939. That changes today, with the first of a three-week burst of classic movies from Hollywood's annus mirabilis.
Today, from September, 1939 comes Intermezzo, featuring Ingrid Bergman and the cinematography of Gregg Toland - meaning that it has no right to be anything but the most gorgeous movie of the year.
One week from now, November 15, we'll take a look at a film from October, 1939: one of the most famous political movies of all time, though one whose politics are more suspect and naïve than you might remember, thanks to Frank Capra's notorious love of warm fuzzies. I'm talking, of course, of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
And on November 22, a political movie of a very different stipe: a Communists vs. Westerners tale that gets devoured by one of the best romantic comedy plotlines in cinema history under the watchful hand of the great Ernst Lubitsch. Watch as Greta Garbo laughs in Ninotchka.
08 November 2009
4 comments:
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thanks to Frank Capra's notorious love of warm fuzzies.
ReplyDeleteI'm not disputing that about many of his movies, but I think "John Doe" is far darker than it's given credit for. Also, his pre-code movies were not yet that fuzzy. "It's a wonderful life" has its dark side too, although I should re-watch to refresh memories now that it's on blu-ray.
Agreed on It's A Wonderful Life. Watching Stewart go bonkers at Uncle Billy & the kids doesn't scream "warm fuzzies".
ReplyDeleteAll true - but his late-'30s comedies certainly deserve their dismissal as "Capra-corn".
ReplyDeleteI'd follow up javi95 by suggesting that The Bitter Tea of General Yen is one of the most peculiar, messed-up psychosexual dramas I can ever remember seeing.
but his late-'30s comedies certainly deserve their dismissal as "Capra-corn".
ReplyDeleteNo doubt about that, and I can't stand watching them, except for Mr. Smith, which somehow is more bearable.
I don't know whether Capra always had the -corn within him, and only showed it when the success of "It happened one night" allowed him to do whatever he wanted, or whether it was all just a commercial ploy, or a way to find his own niche.
I say this because it was so much more subdued in his pre-code movies, and then this dark streak showed up in his 40's movies.
I saw "Ladies of leisure", "The miracle woman" and "The bitter tea of General Yen" at a retrospective in a local theater. I have also watched "Platinum blonde" on dvd, and read about others. It seems like the first Capra-corn movie was "Lady for a day".
Maybe that movie was a bigger box-office success than his previous films, and he kept that in mind from then on. Together with the fact of the Production Code being strictly enforced from mid-1934 onwards, resulting in a more simpleton mindset being settled on American movies. He really hit his stride then. I bet it's no conicidence.