30s

A Night at the Opera

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A Night at the Opera. Metro Goldwyn Meyer 1935.
A Night at the Opera. Metro Goldwyn Meyer 1935.

Before watching the movie:

I was a little confused by the box description of the Marx Brothers skewering the “schemes” of a pompous opera singer when an arts patron is already going to pay him the exorbitant amounts just because he’s such a big star and great singer. It makes a lot more sense to think about it more like a feature-length Bugs Bunny cartoon, with the Marx Brothers skewering the powerful to empower the lowly.

This is widely regarded as the best Marx Brothers movie, but I don’t remember it being on the same list of great comedies that brought Duck Soup to my attention. A spot of research shows that it’s on there, I just didn’t remember it.

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Dracula

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monster_month

Dracula. Universal Pictures 1931.
Dracula. Universal Pictures 1931.

Before watching the movie:

The Ur-vampire story. Everything classical vampires are comes from this movie. While the movie is based on a book, the movie has more range and probably took some liberties.

I’m not sure I’ve ever directly experienced Dracula played straight, not in parody or playing off the legend as “another monster/baddie”.  By pop culture osmosis, I think I have a basic understanding of the plot, but there could be something new to me here.

This movie made Bela Lugosi and Dracula inseparable. I’ll definitely be looking out for how much of that is from the performance and how much from the popularity of the whole film.

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Nothing Sacred

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Nothing Sacred. Selznick International Pictures 1937.
Nothing Sacred. Selznick International Pictures 1937.

Before watching the movie:

It seems like I’ve run into “dealing with unusual problems from an erroneous medical report” before, but I can’t recall where. Some sitcom episodes may be coming to mind, but I think I’ve seen movies based on the idea too.

I must have seen Carole Lombard in movies before, but apparently not in movies reviewed here as she doesn’t seem to have a preexisting tag. The same for Fredric March, though I have even less of an idea what to expect from him.

Anyway, the pair are tied together by a medical mistake. She was expected to be dying, and he was apparently somewhat responsible for the media coverage, and then she turns out to be healthy, and they have to… fix that. Somehow. By verbally sparring, apparently.

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Gulliver’s Travels

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Gulliver's Travels. Fleischer Studios 1939.
Gulliver’s Travels. Fleischer Studios 1939.

Before watching the movie:

This is a story that gets remade every so often, probably because the state of film technology marches on and someone decides they can do better than the last one. Certainly, the recent version with Jack Black established the look very realistically. However, hardly anyone has adapted the entire book, and the title is almost universally considered to refer to only the Lilliput section, which this appears to do. Brobdingnang sometimes gets included since it’s just the reverse of the scale effect, but to my knowledge no version, or at least no enduring version, has attempted, for example, the island of the horse people. Not even the Harryhousen-powered The Three Worlds of Gulliver tried.

This is a staging by another great name in animation and effects, Fleischer Studios. I feel animation is underrepresented on this site, and I’m glad to bring in a historically significant animated feature now. I’ve never really cared much for the Fleischer style, so much as I’ve seen it, but Fleischer didn’t really endure long enough to develop as well as Disney and Warner Bros. did. But it should serve to tell the story adequately.

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Duck Soup

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Duck Soup. Paramount Pictures 1933.

Before watching the movie:

This was a consideration for May’s classics theme, and probably would have been a better fit than one of them. I was actually planning to include it before I realized that May might have had five Thursdays (the day I write on), but only four Fridays (the day I publish).

Anyway, here’s the Marx brothers doing political satire. On what? I don’t recall, but I think it’s about contemporary US foreign policy.

I had fun keeping up a theme for a month. I’m thinking about doing another themed month soon, but it won’t be July.

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The Flying Deuces

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May is Non-Alliterative Silver Screen Classic Movie Month!

The Flying Deuces. Boris Morros Productions 1939.

Before watching the movie:

This is the only film I hadn’t heard of when planning this series, but I wanted a Laurel and Hardy. Well, I wanted a Buster Keaton and a Harold Lloyd, but suitable Keaton and Lloyd films weren’t available to me. Anyway, I wanted something fun to follow last week. I’ll close the month on a serious film.

So, Laurel and Hardy in the Foreign Legion. Comedy ensues, of course. Having so little go go on, I have a hard time conveying how much I’m looking forward to it. I expect a lot of schemes to getout of the Foreign Legion.

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The Thin Man

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The Thin Man. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer 1934.

Before watching the movie:

I’ve heard the popularity of Nick and Nora Charles is in their banter. As this is not the version that left that out (that would be the Broadway musical…), I’m looking forward to it. The writing must be up to it, or it wouldn’t have been and still be popular.

This is an early example of heavily sequelized films, all with silly titles that probably belie their lack of purpose. If you thought today’s sequels were pointless, you haven’t heard of The Thin Man Goes Home.

I’m at a loss for what else to look out for. I don’t doubt much that the mystery is also worthwhile, since it’s the original Hammett story. I’m always more entertained by films of this age than I expect to be, and that goes right back to the character banter.

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