Old School Movie Series [discussion thread] (1 Viewer)

[Emcee]

Here recently, I have found myself drawn to those classic (or school) movie series that populated cinemas for many years back in the 1930s and 1940s. I'm talking about movie series such as The Thin Man, Maisie, Blondie, Mexican Spitfire, and many others.

Anybody a fan of these movies?

 

[Matt Hough]

Of course! All of the ones that revolved around mystery: The Thin Man, Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, and The Falcon are particular favorites. Have watched their individual films many times each.

 

[Emcee]

My viewing (or reading) interests fluctuates often. I've been interested in these old-fashioned movie series the past week or two. Just this morning I added many of them to my Christmas wish-list on Amazon, which I quickly shared with my family. Hopefully I will get at least one or two of them this year.

It's interesting to me just how long some of these series lasted. After years of ups-and-downs in their careers, Ann Sothern and Lupe Velez were made bankable box office names with their Maisie and Mexican Spitfire movies, respectively. Perhaps William Powell and Myrna Loy had the strongest A-list contenders for these types of movie series with their Thin Man catalog, considering most of these movies fall into B-movie territory, which was a tactic used by the producers to keep production costs low and profits high.

Torchy Blane, the fictional female reporter and the main character in a nine-movie series, was played by Glenda Farrell seven times, and once each by Lola Lane and future Oscar winner and eventual Falcon Crest star Jane Wyman. Charlie Chan, the fictional detective out of Honolulu, was played by Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters during the series' heyday. Oland and Toler both died during their tenure as the character, and Winters succeeded Toler before the franchise fizzled out in the late 1940s.

I'm not very familiar with these movies overall, but I enjoy reading about them. I also hope to one day have them in my collection.

 

[Mysto]

You may enjoy some of the discussions in this thread...
Mystery series 1930s and 40s

Cheers

 

[tsodcollector]

The Thin Man hands down.one of the greatest film series of all time it never goes away.

 

[Matt Hough]

The Thin Man hands down.one of the greatest film series of all time it never goes away.

It's set apart from all others because it remained an A-film series. Others like Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan began as A-films and eventually became B-films with smaller budgets and briefer shooting schedules. They remained entertaining, of course, but The Thin Man films were spaced far enough apart that each one was an event.

 

[Emcee]

It's set apart from all others because it remained an A-film series. Others like Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan began as A-films and eventually became B-films with smaller budgets and briefer shooting schedules. They remained entertaining, of course, but The Thin Man films were spaced far enough apart that each one was an event.

Quite true. The Thin Man movies were solid A-productions all the way through. Some started out as such, but gradually became B-movies, whereas series like Torchy Blane and Mexican Spitfire were all B-films.