The Frame » film-1940

They Drive By Night

Jandy — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:49:31 +0000

Humphrey Bogart and George Raft play truck driver brothers, trying to get ahead before they get killed (who knew truck driving was so dangerous?), or, you know, framed into murder plots by Ida Lupino–their boss’s wife who has amorous designs on Raft, despite his much healthier relationship with a young Ann Sheridan (whose acting does, however, leave something to be desired). There’s some interest here–Bogart before he got big (Raft was much the bigger star at the time, which is a bit mind-boggling, because he seems to me to have a very forgettable face, but then I’m coming into the film with an established love for Bogey), Ida Lupino very shortly before she bucked the system and moved into directing, some nice pre-noirish touches. It’s a very good example of the Warner studio style, but beyond that, not terribly distinguished.
Above Average

Too Many Husbands

Jandy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:00:53 +0000

Sometimes I wonder about Hollywood. In 1940, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne made a film called My Favorite Wife in which Dunne was shipwrecked for seven years, and just when Grant had her declared dead and remarried, she showed back up. Also in 1940, this film was made, in which Fred MacMurray gets shipwrecked, and his wife Jean Arthur, after waiting seven years and declaring him dead, marries Melvyn Douglas–only to have MacMurray show back up. The weirdest thing to me is that My Favorite Wife is really careful not to push the censors too far–Grant never consummates his new marriage, since Dunne returned the day of the wedding. But Arthur had been married to Douglas for six months before MacMurray came back, and the first night MacMurray is back is basically spent with the two men trying to figure out how to get into Arthur’s bed without the other one stopping him. So it’s more risque, but it’s not as sustained as My Favorite Wife–in fact, it would be relatively dull if it weren’t for Arthur’s impeccable comic timing. (Suddenly imagining this story with Grant and Arthur, and wishing that film had been made instead of these two..)
Average

The Letter

Jandy — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:01:31 +0000

Bette Davis shoots a man on her front porch, claiming self-defense–but as could be expected, there’s more to the story, bound up in the letter of the title. It’s a good Davis vehicle, but not great. She owns the screen, but I’m not sure it’s worth her. It’s a strange, strange day when I start wishing for Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce, that’s all I can say–generally I’m much more of a fan of Davis than Crawford.
Above Average

The Great Dictator

Jandy — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:05:14 +0000

Charlie Chaplin moved into the world of sound twelve years later than everyone else with this satirical take on Hitler. Not that there’s anything wrong with moving into the sound era twelve years late–his two sound-era silent films City Lights and Modern Times both rank among the world’s all-time greatest films and didn’t need sound in any way whatsoever (Modern Times did have some sound segments, if you want to get technical). In fact, I found it hard to imagine that anything could live up to his great silents, and this doesn’t quite, but it’s still very, very good. Charlie plays a Jewish man who served his country Tomania (read: Germany) in World War I, but was injured and got amnesia; when he is finally released from the hospital, he returns to his home, but discovers that Jews aren’t, um, well-liked in Tomania anymore, and he and fellow ghetto-dweller Paulette Goddard have to help each other out of various scrapes with the Tomanian soldiers. Charlie ALSO plays Adenoid Hynkel, the dictator of Tomania, who dreams of world domination (whimsically portrayed in his joyful dance with a floating globe). Perhaps inevitably, the two end up being mistaken for each other. It was somewhat daring to make a film satirising and ridiculing Hitler this obviously in 1940, but Chaplin pulls it off. If you’re in a make-fun-of-Hitler sort of mood, watch this and Ernst Lubitsch’s brilliant To Be or Not To Be in a double feature.
Superior

Second Chorus

Jandy — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:05:58 +0000

Second-rate vehicle for Fred Astaire. He and Burgess Meredith play college buddies (note that Astaire was in his forties at the time) who play together in a band. When both of them are forced to graduate–apparently they’ve been failing on purpose to continue getting lucrative college engagements–they both go after a spot in Artie Shaw’s orchestra. Along to help is Paulette Goddard, who becomes their manager and the wedge that drives them apart, as they both fall in love with her. There’s some good music from Shaw, if you like big band, far too little dancing from Fred, and a believability factor of around 0.5. I didn’t hate it; there’s not enough there to hate.
Below Average