Movies of the 1930s.... (1 Viewer)

[benbess]

I'm catching up on some of the movies from the 1930s that I've missed over the years. Some of these I've known about for decades, but have only now gotten around to watching. For example, yesterday I watched "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex," which is a Technicolor film from Warner Bros. from 1939. I managed to finally find this now-rare film on Filmstruck, which I decided to join. Filmstuck has a lot of movies from Criterion and TCM. Anyway, I think this movie is a good melodramatic epic, although like many history movies from Hollywood it only has a few dashes of real history in it. This was a $1 million dollar production back when that meant something, and the sets and costumes are so lavish that often I found them jaw-dropping. Bette Davis gives a powerful over-the-top performance, and does look a lot like Queen Elizabeth from historical paintings. Errol Flynn is also good, although not in the league of Bette Davis imho. It would have been an even better movie, I think, if WB has listened to Davis and cast Lawrence Olivier in the part of Essex. Olivia de Havilland is also in the movie, and as always I thought she was wonderful. Vincent Price, Alan Hale, and others do well with what they've got, but are really minor characters with very limited screen time. The Technicolor picture quality is sometimes good enough (sort of), but other times has registration issues and other flaws. Some restoration work seems to have been done on it, but more is needed. Michael Curtiz does a good job with the direction, and Erich Korngold provides a suitably lush and emotional score.

There's one scene in this movie where Bette Davis really slaps Flynn in the face hard. You can tell he's shocked! Anyway, I recommend The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex for people who like movies of this era. Has anyone else seen this one?

PS I wish I could post a movie poster or still, but I don't see how to do that.

PPS I plan to post on my other viewings of movies from the 1930s in this thread as I get to them. I'd be happy to get recommendations beyond the obvious titles like Oz and GWTW. I have seen a lot of top films from 1939, but for most of the other years in the decade before that there are a lot of movies I've never seen.

 

[Vic Pardo]

More on the Flynn/Davis fireworks from IMDB:

Errol Flynn and Bette Davis disliked each other, and when Elizabeth slaps Essex in front of the entire court, Davis hauled off and unexpectedly belted Flynn for real, during a dress rehearsal, a blow that brought stars to his eyes. Flynn described in his biography that he had decided that if Davis hit him during filming, he would have to hit her back. However, she did not actually hit him in the take that ended up in the final version of the film.

Davis supposedly wanted Laurence Olivier for the part of Essex, but Flynn was Warner Bros.' top swashbuckling star and boxoffice draw and a shoo-in for the role.

And a still from the film:

I'd like to prepare a list of 1930s recommendations for you. Can you provide us with the genres you like?

 

[skylark68]

This film was in the old WB Errol Flynn DVD box set. A great period drama. I've been thinking of joining Filmstruck. Lots of good choices from when I browsed the collection awhile back...

Some of my favorite 1930's films are Scarface, the Universal monsters (like Dracula), Lost Horizon, It Happened One Night... Many more, the 1930's was a great decade for film.

 

[benbess]

More on the Flynn/Davis fireworks from IMDB:


Davis supposedly wanted Laurence Olivier for the part of Essex, but Flynn was Warner Bros.' top swashbuckling star and boxoffice draw and a shoo-in for the role.

And a still from the film:

I'd like to prepare a list of 1930s recommendations for you. Can you provide us with the genres you like?

Thanks for the still. How did you post that?

And yes, I'd like recommendations. I like almost most kinds of movies, but here are some of my favorites from the 1930s—Modern Times, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, King Kong, The Rains Came, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Wizard of Oz, some of the Marx Bros comedies, etc. I guess I'm more into drama than comedy at the moment, but I'm open to pretty much anything. Thanks in advance.

 

[benbess]

This film was in the old WB Errol Flynn DVD box set. A great period drama. I've been thinking of joining Filmstruck. Lots of good choices from when I browsed the collection awhile back...

Some of my favorite 1930's films are Scarface, the Universal monsters (like Dracula), Lost Horizon, It Happened One Night... Many more, the 1930's was a great decade for film.

I still haven't seen the original Scarface, but I've seen and like the others.++

 

[Matt Hough]

Elizabeth and Essex was based on Maxwell Anderson's verse drama Elizabeth the Queen, though the verse has been replaced by regular dialogue (it was done on TV with Judith Anderson with the verse intact, I believe). Davis was playing way over her actual age and carries it off pretty well (though she's more believable in The Virgin Queen when she was actually closer to the queen's real age than she was in 1939). Did you recognize Nanette Fabray in a small role early in the film (this was her feature film debut, I believe)?

Amazing that Davis played four totally different women in 1939: The Old Maid, Dark Victory, Juarez, and Elizabeth and Essex. I can't think of another actress of that time who could have pulled off this quartet of varying roles in one year.

 

[benbess]

The next movie from the 1930s I've started on is The Adventures of Marco Polo starring Gary Cooper, which was released in 1937.

Here are my current favorite movies from the 1930s....

1930: All Quiet on the Western Front, Animal Crackers, Murder!, The Big Trail 1931: City Lights, Little Caesar, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Champ, Frankenstein 1932: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1933: King Kong, Duck Soup, Little Women 1934: Imitation of Life, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Treasure Island, Cleopatra 1935: The 39 Steps, Mutiny on the Bounty, Bride of Frankenstein A Night at the Opera, Top Hat, 1936: Modern Times, Sabotage, The Plainsman, The Petrified Forest, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, Secret Agent 1937: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Young and Innocent, The Hurricane, The Good Earth 1938 The Lady Vanishes, The Adventures of Robin Hood

1939 deserves its own list....
1. The Wizard of Oz 2. Gone With the Wind 3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 4. The Rains Came 5. Young Mr. Lincoln 6. Goodbye, Mr. Chips 7. Ninotchka 8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 9. Dark Victory 10. Gunga Din 11. Stagecoach 12. Wuthering Heights 13. Of Mice and Men 14. Drums Along the Mohawk 15. Union Pacific 16. The Women 17. The Hound of the Baskervilles 18. Dodge City....And there are still several notable films I haven't seen from this year, including Beau Geste, Destry Rides Again, The Old Maid, Stanley and Livingstone, Jesse James, etc.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Good list!

I would add that you should definitely see SCARFACE. I'd also recommend ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1933), which is out in a Criterion edition. And from Warner Bros., the James Cagney FBI thriller, G-MEN (1935) and the Edward G. Robinson/Humphrey Bogart BULLETS OR BALLOTS (1936).

 

[benbess]

Watched most of the 1933 version of Little Women through Filmstruck. Although it's a good production with some interesting performance, I prefer the more serious 1994 version. The 1933 version helped launch Katherine Hepburn into stardom, and she has a very strong screen presence, but the adaptation is more oriented toward comedy than drama.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Watched most of the 1933 version of Little Women through Filmstruck. Although it's a good production with some interesting performance, I prefer the more serious 1994 version. The 1933 version helped launch Katherine Hepburn into stardom, and she has a very strong screen presence, but the adaptation is more oriented toward comedy than drama.

The actresses are all way too old for their parts in the 1933 version.

Have you ever seen the 1949 MGM Technicolor version with June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien. Two of the actresses were at least teenagers, unlike the earlier film. If you see this version, compare the scenes where the schoolmaster (played by the same actor, Olin Howlin, in both films) disciplines Amy (Joan Bennett in '33, Liz Taylor in '49) for some infraction. The '49 scene had me dropping my jaw.