mkilmer Reviews

Topaze (I) (1933)

For the love of a good, clean glass of water.

[9/10 · 7 September 2008]

TOPAZE (1933) is a funny movie. It is also a dramatic tale of how corrupt the writers (Ben Hecht/Benn Levy) find the capitalists to be. The capitalist in question is the Baron Philippe de La Tour (Reginald Mason) who is carrying on an affair with a girl called Coco (Myrna Loy). There is no compunction involved, and they carry on as if married. Only they're not.

The Baron La Tour wants to sell bottled water but his "scientific backing" bails on him because the water is not what is advertised. With the help of his paramour Coco, Baron Le Tour finds another scientist in the form of his son's recently fired schoolmaster, Professor Auguste A. Topaze. Unwitting and somewhat naïve, Topaze lends his name to the water which henceforth bears his name, Sparkling Topaze.

Dr. Topaze eventually discovers that, by gosh, he's being used. What he does is the perfect answer to capitalism, because it is done like a true capitalist.

The "evil capitalist" argument has never died, in this era when corporations and oil companies and big pharmaceuticals, etc., are blamed for the sundry world ills, so the story is not really dated. Barrymore is brilliant, owning the role, and Myrna Loy is dazzling. Mason is quite good as the Baron, Jobyna Howland delightful as his wife, and Jackie Searl is a joy as their son, Charlemagne de La Tour, who is something of the nemesis of Dr. Topaze.

This movie is a gem.

Here Comes the Navy (1934)

On board the U.S.S. Arizona, while she floated.

[8/10 · 15 August 2008]

Cagney was great as a stubborn smart aleck, and that is what the James Cagney had a great manner of getting the girl, whether it be Bette Davis in THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. (1941) or Gloria Stuart in HERE COMES THE NAVY (1934).

In HERE COMES THE NAVY, Chesty O'Conner (Cagney) joins the navy simply to have a shot at a rematch brawl with naval officer Biff Martin (Pat O'Brien). On board, he wants to take O'Brien's girl who turns out to be his sister (Stuart). He befriends Droopy Mullins, a sidekick type splendidly played by Frank McHugh.

This was a delightful film, a must for fans of Cagney's humor. And for navy buffs who like to note the service between the world wars, as the Department of the Navy is cited as cooperating in this film.

Oh, and my wife reminds me to point out that there is a blimp in this picture. It is dated to that extent, but its themes and comedy are always applicable. (The blackface scene being the notable exception, but as such attitudes were very present in yesterday's Hollywood, we must bit our lips and let them pass. In this film, the actual African American characters look at Cagney in blackface as if he were goofy. They, too, let it pass.)

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

For fans of silents and early talkies, it's fun.

[15 August 2008]

This was a nice introduction to sound film put together by MGM with most of their biggest stars. Conrad Nagle starts as the master of ceremonies, but he disappears part way through the film and is replaced by Jack Benny. We never see Nagle again, and I've no idea why.

The highlights are many, including a young Joan Crawford, splendid "gams" and all, singing a song. Buster Keaton is as fantastic as we'd expect. Some of the choral numbers in between the real performances tend to drag, but they were gunning for the two-hour mark.

One part was somewhat troubling. Lon Chaney does not appear in the review, but there is a scene where an actor sings a warning to actresses portraying little girls, warning them that Lon Chaney, the actor, is going to sneak up at any moment and kill them all. I had read he was a gentleman in real life, but you go figure.

If you enjoy old cinema, its studios, and most especially its stars, you should enjoy this as a step back in time.

Reducing (1931)

Blood is thicker than social class.

[7/10 · 15 August 2008]

Blood is thicker than social class, be it living relations or one one the way.

REDUCING (1931) is the first Marie Dressler-Polly Hunter film my wife and I had seen, and they worked well together in it. There is a lot of squabbling between the two "sister's" throughout, which is, of course, portrayed in an irritating manner, but it leads up to the annoying all's-well-in-the-end.

I mean annoying in a good way. Part of the charm of this film, at least for me, was that every character in the film was annoying to one extent or another. This is comedy! One sister (Dressler) and her family go through a rough patch, and the successful sister (Moran) considers it her blood duty to bail out her blood. The two daughters fall for the same millionaire, but Moran's daughter (Sally Eilers) has a special claim to him, which is all-but-revealed to bring the film to a conclusion. This is the spoiler. They do not say it, but Eiler's has become pregnant. That has to be it, but Hollywood left it unsaid at that point.

We enjoyed the movie a good deal, but I doubt we could watch it again. Too annoying.

The Fall Guy (1930)

It works well... as a comedy.

[7/10 · 5 June 2008]

When my wife and I watched "The Fall Guy" last night, we expected a low-budget RKO Radio comedy from 1930. We like such things, and this movie fared well on that score. Everything about it is funny or so ridiculous that it is funny. The premise is delightfully absurd, and the acting seemed intentionally comedic.

Was this also supposed to be a Crime-Drama? I suppose that it possible, but as another commenter observed, that part of it does not work well in 2008. It's just funny. A bizarre criminal mastermind pretending also, for some reason, to be a different criminal mastermind pays an unemployable sap to mind a suitcase for a weekend. The sap and his wife live also with the wife's sister and brother, with the brother being an unemployable eccentric learning (badly) to lay the saxophone. (Ned Sparks steals the scene for the entire film in the role of the sax playing in-law.) I can say no more, as it would be giving away the ending of this short (65 min.) film, but the film is a comedy, not a dark comedy, and it is, again, absurd.

If you love these old movies, by all means watch it. It's a amusing and should be worth an hour of your time.

Double Dynamite (1951)

Of Sinatra, Jane, and Groucho.

[8/10 · 12 June 2007]

This move is set some time in the 1940s, so plug that in and go along for the ride. Sinatra stars as an honest man, eking out a living as a bank teller but not enough for marriage. By chance, he's captured by the underworld and makes a mint. He can marry Jane Russell, something the wisecracking waiter, Groucho Marx, seems to want. But there has been an apparent embezzlement at the bank where Sinatra works, and its discovery is timed exactly with Sinatra's underworld winnings. He did not embezzle the money, but he can't rightly say he did come by it. But Groucho is there to help him, and we all know what that means.

This is a nifty film with a few good twists and its share of laughs.

There is a scene where "Johnny Dalton" is lying in his bed in his apartment and Mibs Goodhue in her bed in hers, separated by wall. Dalton starts to sing.

"You know," I teased to my wife, "that guy sounds a lot like Sinatra." "It is," she deadpanned in reply.

"Looks too young to be Sinatra." Yeah, 't was 1951. If you want to go back for a spell, this one will take you there.

Broadminded (1931)

A cure vehicle for someone. I'm not sure who.

[7/10 · 3 June 2007]

William Collier Jr. as the lady's man (Jack Hackett) in this flick, but Joe E. Brown's character (Ossie Simpson) got the most alluring girl, little Marjorie White as Penny Packer. I cannot go beyond that without giving a spoiler, but the movie is shallow on plot.

It's a sort of vacation-esquire film, with Collier and Brown heading across country to get Collier away from gambling, booze, and women. It doesn't work out. He falls in love. The fiancée he left in New York, played by Margaret Livingstone, should have been given a chance to be interesting, but the script writers didn't have it in 'em.

Brown's character begins the film dressed as a baby and winds up being chased through a hotel by Bela Lugosi, so if you want madcap, it's here. Talking pictures were in their infancy, and this one could have made it as a silent, but it was great to see Thelma Todd playing it effortlessly. (I felt that Zasu Pitts should have been there.) Bela Lugosi is scary. No surprise.

It was a cute, little vehicle for someone, perhaps Brown. I'm not sure.

Rafter Romance (1933)

Growing up, I thought all she did was tap dance.

[8/10 · 3 June 2007]

Ginger Rogers was a first rate actress, and one of the funniest when she wanted to be. This film has her renting an apartment and having trouble with her rent. Her boss (Robert Benchley) is a sexist pig who demands a date. Several times.

Money forces her landlord to make her share her attic apartment with a painter (Norman Foster) – he gets days, she gets nights – and the two build certain assumptions about each other and dislike each other, sight unseen.

Sight seen, though they don't know they're sharing an apartment, they fall in love.

Laura Hope Crews is funny as the drunken woman of means who is constantly trying to seduce Foster, and George Sidney is delightful as the landlord.

Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams puts in an appearance as the protective cabbie.

All in all, a delightful film. Good plot, delightful acting, and – pre Hayes code – we get a glimpse of Miss Roger's legs. I'm sorry, but for all her splendid talent, we must not forget the God-given asset which carried her through so many later films with Freddy Astaire.

Married Before Breakfast (1937)

"An Night in the Life..."

[7/10 · 18 May 2007]

MARRIED BEFORE BREAKFAST is about one night. Recently rich Tom Wakefield (Robert Young) embarks on an adventure with Kitty Brent (Florence Rice); you see, he has to convince a stubborn milkman to purchase an insurance policy from Kitty's fiancé, Kenneth (Hugh Marlowe). If the milkman purchases the policy, he will be promoted, and he and Kitty can be married.

In order to go on this adventure, Tom must leave his own fiancée in the lurch for a while.

The movie is the night and the adventure. You want Tom and Kitty, both engaged to someone else, to hook up and… I won't give away the ending. But the adventure – with cops, cabbies, gangsters, firemen, and milkmen – is a delight.

There's Always a Woman (1938)

It's not the THIN MAN, but it is...

[7/10 · 17 May 2007]

My wife tells me that she liked THERE'S ALWAYS A WOMAN as much as THE THIN MAN (and its progeny). I don't put them in the same league – and chances are, you won't either – but my wife tells me that she liked that the woman (Joan Blondell) was the detective and the smart one. (The "smart" part can be debated, as it is not constant, but this film was made in the 1930s.) The cast was very good, but there is no William Powell. I don't care how many awards he won, Melvyn Douglas is no William Powell. And neither is Joan. (There is no Myrna Loy/subordinate wife character, which takes us back to why my wife liked this so.) If you are reading this review, chances are you'll like this film. It has the charm we can always find in comedies of this period, and Joan is wonderful as always. (And for THIN MAN fans, there is a period of suitable drinking.)

Naughty But Nice (1939)

A cute, funny film.

[17 May 2007]

NAUGHTY BUT NICE works. Dick Powell plays a daffy professor, but the real sparkle is from Helen Broderick as the big city aunt who does the jazz thing, gets her visiting nephew, an aspiring classical composer, involved in the wonderful world of pop jazz songwriting. He's a success, despite the criticisms of his University dean (Halliwell Hobbes) and his three quasi-abolitionist sisters (Vera Lewis, Elizabeth Dunne, and the always fascinating Zasu Pitts).

Good film. The Ed "Eddie" Clark character handled a team of songwriters, and while Powell was tricked into working for another, his love interest worked for the Clark team. I found myself standing whenever Clark appeared on screen.

The Dark Horse (1932)

Remember: it's not about your party.

[7/10 · 5 May 2007]

I do see what my forebears saw in the youthful Bette Davis. She's splendid throughout this almost-madcap political comedy which actually stars Warren Williams as the political operative constantly behind on his alimony. Vivienne Osborne is brilliant as his ex, and I found myself rooting for her throughout. The Williams character is not at all sympathetic, and he's not even a decent op.

Guy Kibbee is one of the best at what he does. As a candidate dragged out of his sleep at a political convention and nominated to be governor in order to prevent a rival candidate from being nominated, so this whole mess is borne of internecine political warfare in a party called the "Progressive Party." If you're of a political mind, you will probably see a party other than the one with which you are affiliated reflected in the fictional "Progressive Party" of Williams and Kibbee. I could draw exact parallels, but we're not here for that.

This is a good movie for those of us who love these old comedies. If you've ever watched any of the old Wheeler & Woolsey titles (HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE, THE RAINMAKERS), you'll find Frank McHugh, as Williams's right arm, looking and behaving a lot like Bert Wheeler. He had me fooled.

Yes, both my wife and I recommend this one.

Dinner at Eight (1933)

The drama was overdone, the comedy was delightful.

[7/10 · 5 May 2007]

DINNER AT EIGHT had its share of talent from the early taking cinema, many holdovers from the silent era. Lionel Barrymore is wonderful as the dying shipping magnate whose wife (Billie Burke as something of a ditz) is having the Dinner at Eight. This film could probably have been packaged as a pure comedy if it weren't for the soap operas contained in the saga of Edmund Lowe's character (the philandering doctor) and his strangely accepting wife. And if it weren't for the deal with John Barrymore as the fading actor with a heavy alcoholic habit. (You know…) The latter especially casts a downer on an otherwise delightful flick. Perhaps Selznick wanted this year to be taken seriously, and perhaps it was… but I'd recommend it for Lionel, Burke, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow, and the rest of the cast.

Barrymore's quite good, but we found ourselves sitting through his scenes, and the Lowe scenes, uncertain if we were watching the movie which we had started watching not a while ago. The drama is overdone, I think, and really not necessary, If you can make it through that, the movie is memorable. You've been warned, but with the warning in mind, have fun.

Always Together (1947)

It is about Joyce Reynolds's eyes.

[14 April 2007]

ALWAYS TOGETHER is a cute movie with a clever plot device, the conclusion never seems preordained. Robert Hutton is fine for the part of ne'er-do-well writer Donn Masters, tossing aside what one would think was the proper relationship between masculinity and money in a coupling. Joyce Reynolds has the eyes of star-crossed movie-goer Jane Barker, who comes by a huge sum goes through the film confabulating that incredible reality with the drama of the latest picture.

She gets the money from multi-millionaire Jonathan Turner, with Cecil Kellaway performing splendidly in that role. Having given it, through his attorney, Timothy J. Bull (Ernest Truex, Turner finds he's not going to die and sets about to go to great lengths to get his money back.

Without giving away the ending, it is very clever. The millionaire and his attorney are absorbed by the fantasy, while Jane and Donn confront their new reality.

There are gaps in the story, leaps of plausibility, but it is after all a movie, and a fun one at that. Remember, Joyce Reynolds had beautiful eyes, and the movie is about what Jane Barker sees and how she sees it.

Double Harness (1933)

The story was okay...

[8 April 2007]

"He always has a drink," said my wife. She was speaking, of course, of William Powell's various characters, and I observed that he was always wealthy. Was he typecast? That is a question for seventy-years-ago; today, we just enjoy his work.

And it starred William Powell. (Isn't that enough?) In DOUBLE HARNESS, Powell plays John Fletcher, a playboy millionaire who is targeted for marriage by Joan Colby (Ann Harding). She gets her man, and this turns out to be to his immediate benefit. She gets him interested in running the company he inherited, and with her help, he's quite successful at it. He's a savvy guy, but she's clearly the woman behind the successful man. (Yes, such a thing still exists, some seventy years after.) Joan's sister Valerie (Lucille Browne) is something of a ditz with spending proclivities beyond her means. This leads to a disaster of a sort, but it's nothing Joan cannot handle.

The ending, which I shan't divulge, left me with a few questions, but the answers were not necessary and I was pleased with the film. William Powell fans, you don't want to miss the master at work.

Blonde from Brooklyn (1945)

A musical. Nothing special.

[8 April 2007]

Everyone in this THE BLONDE FROM BROOKLYN has a scam, except the blonde from Brooklyn (Lynn Merrick). The soldier (Robert Stanton) musters out and wants to do a singing act as a southerner. He enlists the jukebox girl, who is the blonde from Brooklyn, to be his partner, a southern belle. She thus has her scam.

They meet a southerner, 'Colonel' Hubert Farnsworth, whose probably never was a colonel. He gave the blonde from Brooklyn her story, makes her the granddaughter of an old girlfriend from the South. It happens that the blonde from Brooklyn, as the fiction granddaughter of a real family, is heir to that family's fortune, and they spend the film trying to dodge the lawyer and the fraud charges which would ensue were she to accept the fortune. But she also cannot reveal that it's a scam, as then she and the soldier would lose their lucrative radio gig.

This was not the best film I've seen this year. It could well have been the worst, but that's a relative term. We watched the entire thing and my wife didn't mutter afterward, so if you like old pictures with song, you might go for it.

Make Me a Star (1932)

Hollywood dreams can come true... sort of.

[8 April 2007]

Here I am, in 2007, and I'm a huge Joan Blondell fan. Yes, Zasu Pitts appears in MAKE ME A STAR – daffy and confounding – but only for a bit. I think it's Joanie's movie.

Stuart Erwin stars as Merton Gill, a.k.a. 'Whoop' Ryder, a kid from a small town who wants to make it in Hollywood as a serious actor in Westerns. He gives it a huge effort, but he's dismissed as the rube he actually is. Flips Montague (Joan) is sympathetic. She gets him a job, with a Mack Sennett-like director whose big star is that "cross-eyed man" Stuart dislikes so much. Merton thinks he's acting in a serious film, but it is edited and spliced, his voice changed to make him sound effeminate, and turned into a farce.

Merton proposes to Joan before the film's big opening, but she feels guilty and fakes sickness. He goes to the opening by himself and is humiliated.

I won't give away the ending, and the film is resolved by the closing scene, but it's nice to imagine his future if he takes the course which involves the girl.

This is a fun film.

Evelyn Prentice (1934)

If you like Powell and Loy, catch this one.

[14 March 2007]

In EVELYN PRENTICE, I saw the importance of family and the real meaning of "'til death do us part," from the standard marriage vows. Work comes between John and Evelyn Prentice (William Powell and Myrna Loy). A sweet-talker comes between John and Evelyn Prince. Their daughter Dorothy brings them together, as does love.

As simple as this sounds, as possibly hokey, it mattered in 1935, and it made for a good movie. It matters in the 21st Century, as well, and the movie is still good.

The villain in this film is portrayed as totally devoid of value, his killing beneficial to the human race. Vigilante justice is an uneasy concept, but it works. The sleazy sweet-talker is shot, and John Prentice is the best attorney around.

If you like Powell and Loy beyond the Thin Man series, and there are several great ones, you'll enjoy this. Powell's character is a sophisticated as ever, Loy's as fantastically intelligent.

My wife and I enjoyed this film.

The Great Man Votes (1939)

A Great Man is saved.

[5 March 2007]

I have nothing objective to add to Theowinthrop's commentary on THE GREAT MAN VOTES here at IMDb, but I want to add my own observations concerning and reactions to the film. It had been only a few months since I'd seen John Barrymore, with Delores Costello in WHEN A MAN LOVES (1927), and I liked this role better than that of a man in love fighting the powers that be for the love of a girl and that girl's honor. Simple stuff.

In this one, Barrymore plays Gregory Vance, a "Great Man" under the thumb of the bottle since the death of the love of his life. He loves his two children, who are part of her, and they believe that he is still a "Great Man." The kids at school label him a drunk, and that's what he is to them.

Hearing Vance speak, learning his history, you know he was a Great Man, and you yearn for him to be one again, for his sake and for that of his children. He has that opportunity, and his children are happy for it. (They kids handle the negotiation. It's splendid.) But does he have to sell his soul, in a manner of speaking, to attain it? There's a heavy streak of partisan politics, though the party name is never specified, and you have a ward boss called Iron Hat who doesn't seem so bad as his awful son.

This movie worked. Since this was Barrymore's last important leading role, he goes out on a wonderful note. And, yes, he played a good drunk.

The Hoodlum Saint (1946)

Is it for Money or for Faith?

[9/10 · 28 February 2007]

The war was not World War II, but rather, the Great War. Returning veterans were treated well, the plot line tells us, but they did not all return to their jobs. Such was the fate for one Terry O'Neil, a delightful role in the hands of William Powell.

Always eager to help the friends he made as a reporter – yes, his sources were often hoodlums – he does that. The doors are slammed in his face, and he uses his supreme wit to make his fortunate. He uses religion – Catholicism and Saint Dismas (Patron of Thieves) – to get his hoodlum friends to leave him alone. So we the viewer are left with a nice guy who has changed into a driven man with plenty of money and no need whatsoever for faith.

America changed on October 29, 1929, and so did Terry O'Neil. Anything else would be a spoiler, but it is a William Powell movie and Powell's characters were wicked smart and unwicked decent sorts.

The love interest, and films have to have one of those, was played beautifully by a beauty: Esther Williams. O'Neil's dark side's love interest was played by Angela Lansbury, straight from Broadway with a voice to match her beauty.

THE HOODLUM SAINT may, as has been suggested, have been better suited for '36 than for '46, but it plays well in '07 for those of us who love these films.

Judge Priest (1934)

Will Rogers as Will Rogers.

[28 February 2007]

This is warm movie with plenty of sympathetic characters. And plenty of nasty ones. A young love is threatened by a class-conscious mother, while the uncle is… well, he's Will Rogers. (The character's name is the title, Judge Billy Priest, but I suspect he's the "Will Rogers" character.) As with anything cast in the deep south in the 1890s, there are some moments and characters with which you might find yourself uncomfortable. I was taken aback by "Jeff Poindexter," portrayed by then-popular black actor Stepin Fetchit. (Fetchit has an awful, partisan political bio here at IMDb – the man deserves much better -- but he is an interesting story.) He seemed to me to be a set of overblown stereotypes, but the Judge befriends him and my wife was simply taken with him.

There's a lot to like about this film, although it does drag in places. (I was surprised when the lawn party ends.) I had to smile, though, when the judge got to play lawyer, called on witness, and the universe stood still to the strains of "Dixie."

The Rainmakers (1935)

It's Wheeler and Woolsey.

[7/10 · 16 February 2007]

If you've not seen a picture with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, this is as good a place to start as any. They were Broadway stars who moved to the Big Screen at a time when people would go to the movies to be entertained, not to take a flimsy message from simpleton screenwriters. What I mean, I missed this era, but it's available to me and to you on DVD or TCM or anywhere you can find it.

Yes, it's worth a look, I think. In the Rainmakers (1935), Wheeler and Woolsey... well, they save the day despite the best efforts of the Bad Guy Who Owns the Town. And it's nice to see Bert romantically paired with Dorothy Lee, as she plays a delightfully unconstrained character in these films, and she does it so well.

The musical number was a bit long for my wife's taste, and I thought the train scene at the end could have been pared down a little, but this was a fun movie!

Here Comes the Groom (1951)

It's Bing. It's Capra.

[8/10 · 16 February 2007]

If Frank Capra had a message in this film, it might have been that the in America, the wealthy, though as personable as anyone, do not always "get the girl." But they, as everyone, get something, and there is happiness to be had.

Bing Crosby was Bing Crosby, an incredible talent who could light up a motion picture with his facial expressions; when he sings, wow.

This is not a movie for those uptight with notions of a "Patriarchy"; it was 1951, and the general relationship between men and women had changed somewhat between then and now. You do the film a disservice by trying to do that, so put yourself in their shoes for an hour, thirteen, and let yourself feel good.

Hollywood doesn't make reporters like Pete Garvey anymore.

The Green Pastures (1936)

Dy'a want a cigar, Lawd?

[9/10 · 23 January 2007]

I do not know about the stereotypes, who believed what and when, if anyone were really the way depicted, etc. This was a warm interpretation of old, familiar Old Testament stories backed by a joyful choir. Rex Ingram was a great actor, and he was inspiring in each of his roles in this film. To the role of God, one challenging to any mortal actor, he brought a sense of immense love and transformation brought on by that love. The image of him putting his arm around an aged and exhausted Moses as the Israelites hit Jericho without their leader was one of compassionate friendship. This is what we're told God felt for Moses.

Hey, 10-cent cigars in Heaven! There is so much in this about what Heaven might have meant to people in a different time, a different condition. And to us. Volumes were spoken of the Archangel Gabriel, after the Lord had done his work: "Dy'a want a cigar, Lawd?" I agree with the other reviewers who say that this film is a priceless joy.

It's a Wonderful World (1939)

Jimmy Stewart does Screwball Comedy

[7/10 · 11 January 2007]

Was IT'S A WONDERFUL WORLD hurt by the fact that it is difficult for me to imagine Jimmy Stewart as a hardball character, even a chauvinist, or was it helped by the fact that this movie would have been nothing without him? Granted, Claudette Colbert plays the poet, the hopelessly romantic dreamer, well, and that plays off Stewart's greed-driven detective splendidly.

The detective, crime-solving part of the film is well done within its confines, Edgar Kennedy and Nat Pendleton are cast well as the rather slow-witted police. If this 1939 film had been made two and a half decades earlier, they would have fallen over each other, broken things, and caused ultraviolence in a Mack Sennett sort of way.) Guy Kibbee is, of course, perfect as the Stewart's partner. I will not spoil the ending, but I can say that as with all well-written screwball comedies, the film has a delightful way of meandering through situations and reaching a conclusion which satisfies.

I don't know if this will help, but before viewing, I had to promise my wife that it was not that Christmas movie.