This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order.
A Woman's Face - I saw George Cukor's 1941 remake of this film with Joan Crawford first, which is a perfectly fine movie, but far inferior to the Swedish original. Ingrid Bergman's performance as the scarred leader of a blackmail ring is incredible, and her unlikely redemption is far more moving than the played up romantic relationship and courtroom theatrics of the Hollywood version. Kudos should also go to director Gustaf Molander, especially for the influential post-surgery sequence.
Port of Seven Seas - Not all remakes are created equal, however, and I find this greatly condensed version of Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles trilogy a delightful watch. Written by Preston Sturges directed by James Whale, lensed by the great Karl Freund, and starring an excellent cast led by veteran character actor Frank Morgan, the film is a charmer through and through. Fans of the original will likely cry foul at some of the changes to the plot and characters, but taken on its own, it works beautifully.
A Slight Case of Murder - A comedy starring Edward G. Robinson as a Prohibition bootlegger trying to go straight, based on Damon Runyon's only play. Robinson as this genial, rough-edged mobster trying to join polite society would be funny on his own, but give him a family with similar criminal instincts, a couple of dim-bulb goons, and four dead bodies to get rid of, and you've got a classic. None of the gags or characters are particularly original, but the execution from everyone involved is perfect.
Pygmalion - This is a direct adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw play that the "My Fair Lady" musical was based on, with a screenplay by Shaw himself. Much of the material in the later adaptations was created for this film, including the embassy ball sequence. I can see why this was considered the definitive screen version of the story for so long. Wendy Hiller's Eliza Doolittle is one for the ages - painfully genuine and easy to root for - and Leslie Howard as Professor Higgins is no slouch either.
Boys Town - Hollywood mythmaking may have never been better than this biopic of Father Flanagan, a Roman Catholic Priest who started a boys' orphanage in 1917. The story and nearly all the characters are fictional, based very loosely on the real Flanagan and his organization. However, you never saw a more inspirational, life affirming piece of cinema, with Spencer Tracy playing the embodiment of all of humanity's generosity and kindness, declaring for the ages that there's no such thing as a bad boy.
Alexander Nevsky - Sergei Eisenstein's historical action film is easily the most exciting thing he ever made. There are epic battle sequences, touches of manly humor, and hints of the fantastic as the film chronicles the exploits of a Russian hero out of legend. It's the cinematography that's the main event here, creating these magnificent visual compositions and in camera effects that are stunning to this day. Every subsequent screen battle owes something to Eisenstein's work here.
Bringing Up Baby - One of the best examples of the screwball comedy pits Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant against each other and a leopard named Baby. This was a box office bomb upon release, but subsequently rediscovered by generations of comedy fans who couldn't resist the expertly engineered comedic chaos of miscommunications, mistaken identities, bad luck, and physical pratfalls galore. By the time Hepburn and Grant are dangling on that dinosaur skeleton, I was in love with both of them.
The Adventures of Robin Hood - Was there any leading man that had more charm than Errol Flynn? And "Robin Hood" was Flynn at his peak, wooing Olivia de Haviland as Maid Marion, and Basil Rathbone as the villainous Guy of Gisbourne, all in glorious Technicolor. The movie still holds up, thanks largely to its exciting stunts, including one of the best screen sword fights of all time. Kudos should also go to the unusually high production values, helping to show off the newfangled color photography.
You Can't Take it With You - A Frank Capra comedy that puts two of my favorite actors - James Stewart and Jean Arthur - into a very unlikely premise. The son of a greedy factory owner falls for the daughter of a family of eccentrics, who also happen to be the lone holdouts preventing a pivotal business deal from going through. The farce commences, resulting in literal fireworks, but the core of the picture is the very Capraesque appeal to humanity and neighborliness over capitalism and greed.
The Lady Vanishes - Finally, this is one of Alfred Hitchcock's last British films, the success of which spurred him to head for Hollywood. "The Lady Vanishes" is one of the undisputed classics of the mystery genre, though it's also often also classified as a romantic comedy and a precursor to a lot of WWII spy thrillers. Of the accomplished cast, May Whitty as the vanished Miss Froy made the biggest impression on me, a pleasant old woman who nobody should be surprised is keeping big secrets.
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