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Boy Meets Girl (1938)
Not as Much Fun to Watch as it Must Have Been to Make
I adore James Cagney, and while I find a lot of the antics in this film to be over-the-top--annoying even--I do enjoy imagining how much fun Cagney must've had making this crazy film with his pals Pat O'Brien & Frank McHugh!
Leave It to Beaver: Pet Fair (1960)
Poor Decisions & Examples, and Unnecessary, Blatant Dishonesty
-Miss Landers should've made it clear that some children don't have pets & that's OK. (Also, believably problem: no way was there no other kid in that class who didn't have a pet.)
-Beaver should have just said he didn't have a pet. Not a big deal.
-Ward should've stuck with his original position not to buy Beaver a pet just because Miss Landers failed to handle it properly.
-June should've supported Ward in his decision not to buy Beaver a pet at that time
-Both parents were wrong to send Beaver to school to lie and pretend he had a pet parrot.
Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
Drake's Cloying? Purring? Infantile?
I first saw Betsy Drake in Room for One More, also with Cary Grant, and thought I could guess what Grant probably saw in her in real life. Cute, kind, smart, socially conscious, etc. Then, I saw Every Girl Should Be Married & was flabbergasted! I get that she's playing a role, but considering what I've read about her, I can't see why she would stoop to this one.
The other IMDb 4-or-fewer-star reviews of this movie have pretty well covered most of the my complaints about it
However, on top of all the other offensive aspects of Every Girl Should Be Married, one of the most irritating is Drake's voice. Not sure how to describe it. Cloying? Purring? Infantile? But, OMG, just awful!
Seems this was around when more and more female film characters began to speak this way (and the male characters began to become more stupidly macho), and this is a particularly egregious example!
While I almost always find early films somewhat interesting from a sociological and design perspective, the tradeoff in this case just wasn't worth it.
The Awful Truth (1937)
The Awful Ruse
I'm no professional film critic, so my reviews pretty much reflect my own idiosyncratic, somewhat inconsistent preferences. I might even love one film with the exact same director, script, and production values as another version I would dislike if it had a different cast.
So, the fact that I generally find Irene Dunne unappealing & annoying (though I did like her in 13 Women) has a lot to do with how irritating I find The Awful Truth. (I was shocked to find that Grant, one of my absolute faves, supposedly thought Dunne a delightful, highly talented actress with impeccable comedic timing!)
Particularly aggravating is the scene in which Dunne acts moronically obnoxious as she pretends to be Jerry's sister, Dixie Belle Lee. Part of the blame might go to the writers. Perhaps, regarding that characterization, ala Jessica Rabbit--Not bad, just "drawn" that way? And whose idea was it (Dunne's or the writers') for urbane northerner Jerry's sister to be be a crude, dim-witted southern gal?
Part of my antipathy for TAT may also be that that so much suspension of disbelief is required to buy much of the far-fetched plot. Though, much of Bringing up Baby is equally ludicrous, and I love that film--undoubtedly, to do with how much I adore Katharine Hepburn!
I guess the British expression, Horses for Courses, is apropos here!
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Rage Against the Misidentified Machine
I love this picture, even though it's melodramatic and has obvious plot holes. I feel just as Jefferson Smith does about how government should work. During my many visits to to DC, I've always been overwhelmed by somewhat sappy feelings of patriotism, similar to those exhibited by Stewart's character.
The main point deductions from my rating are due to the hypocrisy of Right Wing "conservatives," Stewart & Capra failing to recognize that Smith, the honorable good guy, is the Liberal/Democrat doing battle with the corrupt corporate bad guy Republican types.
Same is true of their collaboration, It's a Wonderful life. The greedy, cruel, dishonest, corporate Mr. Potter behaves just like a RW Republican and nothing like a liberals/Democrat who fights far more for George Baileys of the world and against the mean, evil Mr. Potters. How they or anyone couldn't recognize this is mind-boggling and in large part due to deceptive, cynical RW propaganda.
The Third Man (1949)
Ugly Americans and Other Despicable Characters
Just because he's a dim-witted sot doesn't mean American, Holly Martins, can't also be an arrogant loud-mouth. But, hey, at least he's not a sociopath like his old pal, Harry Lime. Too bad for him, though, because Anna Schmidt, whom he ridiculously quickly falls hard for, remains loyal to Harry, her recently-deceased (or is he?!!!) lover.
It seems likely that Harry isn't really dead, but who cares? Maj. Calloway, who initially comes off as a rude, incompetent cop, and his right-hand man, the inexplicably kindly Sgt. Paine, turn out to be two of the few characters whose death I'd feel the least bit sorry about.
Oh, and that relentless, peripatetic, overly chipper zither soundtrack exacerbates all those irritating issues.
Obviously, many people enjoy films with creepy characters and psychological, or physical, violence. I'm not one of those people. So, it's not the least bit surprising I didn't care much for this movie.
I will occasionally rate a film based more on an attempted objective analysis, but it has to be an especially original or clever story, well-told, or some other flash of brilliance for me to override my dislike for various unpleasant or offensive characteristics. Especially, as I get older, I'm just rating on my personal taste. And the Third Man tastes mostly rancid to me.
Today We Live (1933)
Love, Honor, Bravery, Heroism.. and some awful dialog
I'm a sucker for the fairy tale aspects of what is depicted as honorable, civilized behavior in many 1930s films. Ixnay on the racism, misogyny, homophobia, strict religiosity, etc. But, in many ways, there is so much less of those than there will be as we move through the decades toward a supposedly more enlightened modern era, something admirable in the characters that can be witnessed slipping away over the decades, leading to the selfish, gruff, crusty macho men of the 1950s and later.
To be continued...
Peg o' My Heart (1933)
Charming vs. Irritating
I've only recently begun watching Marion Davies movies, and so far, with each I've had a distinctly mixed reaction. Davies both annoys and charms.
In Peg o' My Heart, certain aspects of her performance strike me as both good and bad. The foremost example being her attempted Irish accent. Near the beginning, my husband said how awful he thought the accent was. I countered that I thought it was pretty good. By the end of the film, we'd switched positions.
As with the fact that she was far too old to be playing a teen, her enthusiastically going for the accent, despite it being somewhat ridiculous, was fairly charming as well as rather irritating.
Tipping the scales more on the irritating than charming side were her unnecessary stabs at singing & dancing.
Some things were just plain irritating. For instance, the way they weren't happy to put her in pigtails but decided to wire them so they stuck out and flipped up ludicrously, Pippi Longstocking style.
Overall, 50/50. Meaning I had to round up or down from 5.5 and I went with down. Hence, 5 out of 10.
When Ladies Meet (1933)
Marvelous Setting, Thoughtful Storyline, Fabulous Female Leads
I absolutely adored this film.
The female parts, in particular, appealed to me. Especially Myrna Loy & Ann Harding, playing interesting, intelligent, thoughtful, basically kind and compassionate women, even if Loy's Mary was naively blind to her lover's duplicity. After all, that snake was a convincing liar.
Alice Brady's Bridget was the kind of ditzy character who could very easily be annoying & unlikeabke, but I didn't find her so. Fine comic relief in this drama.
Robert Montgomery's Jimmie was irritating, but not awful, and Frank Morgan's Rogers was awful but, in the end, got what he deserved, which was satisfying.
No doubt, the setting, both time & place, added to my enjoyment. I think the 30s may be my favorite period for fashion, architecture, interior design (Bridget's country home was gorgeous) and, well, films.
It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Good Concept Ruined by Very Stupid & Annoying Characters
Dick Powell's character gets tomorrow evening's newspaper today and all he can think of to take advantage of this amazing stroke of good luck is to steal one of his colleague's stories from that edition of the paper, basically to impress his boss.
Right there is enough to ruin a movie. But he continues commit unnecessrily moronic acts throughout. Plenty of not-so-bright or otherwise annoying characters add to the insult to the viewers' intelligence.
So bad my normally tolerant husband left the room.
Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
Anachronisms & Implausibility
I love much of Cagney's work, but I'm sorry I watched this film. I don't know anything about the real Ruth Etting & her manager/husband, but it's hard to imagine she would be such a sweet innocent and he such an unlikable, irredeemable bully.
Also, how are we to believe the story is occurring in the 1920s-30s when pretty much the only stylistic nod to that era were the automobiles? Doris's hairdo is that awful, early 50's stiff, poofy helmet-head style, and her clothing is similarly anachronistic. And while many of the songs are from the correct period, most of the arrangenents and Doris's singing style are most distinctly not.
Perhaps if I were a fan of early 50s anything, this may not have ruined the film for me, but as I'm not, it did.
Not so bothersome, but slightly distracting was how Johnny seemed to age far more than anyone else in the film.
I thought Cagney would be enough to make any film at least worth watching, but boy was I ever wrong about that.
Another Face (1935)
TMC Owes Me a TV
...because I threw mine out the window after watching this fool fest. Broken Nose was my favorite character, and I despised him! Every single main character is idiotically annoying or annoyingly idiotic. I was going to call this review Swiss Cheese, but I guess you can't call it a hole in the plot when foolish characters constantly do foolish things.
Since IMDB won't let me give it zero stars, I'll say the one star is for the novelty of seeing good ole Erik Rhodes be boring for a change.
A Star Is Born (1954)
Not For Me
I wish my first viewing of this film had not been of the "restored" full length version. It just prolonged the misery.
In fairness, I'm not a fan of 50s films. In fact, all of my favorites are from the 30s & 40s. In contrast to those of the 50s, I find the aesthetics extremely appealing--the clothing, the set decorations, the voices, the mannerisms, and the music all please me immensely.
Moving into the 50s, all of those characteristics transform markedly and, for me, in a very negative direction. So, I didn't expect to love this film, but nor did I expect to hate it with a passion.
The music and fashions in A Star is born were particularly unpleasant for me. I don't care much for overly showy singing. Anything melisma-heavy, scream-y, oper-y, or dramatically belted out has poor chance of finding favor with me. Give me Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, or Gene Kelly's vocals over those of Nelson Eddy, Jeanette McDonald, or Jane Powell anyday.
But even my husband, who goes in far more for showy singing than I, didn't warm to Judy in A Star is Born and went to bed at the hour 2 mark.
I love Judy in most of her earlier flix and my heart goes out to her for all the difficulties she suffered through. But in Star, I found her generally un. I found her appearance harsh. Again, partly to do with the make-up & fashions of that time period. But Judy, moreso than any of the other women in the movie, (Though good luck actually getting a good look at one female besides Judy.) In particular, there was something very awkward going on in the bustline of her dresses later in the film.
As for the plot, it didn't hold up for me for a few reasons. Chief among them being that James Mason as Norman Maine was a pompous about whose fate I didn't give a damn. Unlike with Fredric March as Maine, who I thought was very appealing as Maine, even at his worst.
It was also not plausible that Esther, with that amazingly distinctive, voice (though not to my taste, undeniably well loved by many) didn't get noticed by anyone powerful long before Maine was wowed by her. I mean, it wasn't as if she'd been hidden away. She even hsang in the Coconut Grove nightclub.