1940's Hall Of Fame Part I

Like most Hitchcock films, I last saw this about 20 years ago and barely remembered it. This happened to be one of his movies that I remembered liking the most, but unfortunately, I didn't like it as much this go around. Except for Dial M for Murder, this has been a consistent pattern. I did think it was a good movie and I definitely liked it, but I'm not really sure to what extent in either regard. When the movie first started out, I thought the murder was the result of some kind of gay love triangle. I liked the psychological direction it ended up going in. The movie feels very staged to me; more like I'm being shown something than if I was watching something. That's not a complaint, yet I did get a gimmicky feeling towards the whole thing. I do like the real time aspect and continuous shot style. I didn't think any of the performances particularly stood out, yet they were good enough and I liked the dialogue. The best thing for me about the movie was that I was instantly engrossed with it, and I remained interested throughout. It's a short movie that never threatens to get dull. For a reason that I cannot pinpoint, Rope reminded of Rashomon. For now, I am very comfortable with my rating, although I will admit that I could be underrating it.

Arsenic & Old Lace This movie has always been a huge favorite of mine since I was a kid, so my review will be on the rather bias side
I have always enjoyed Capra, he has a very endearing love for the eccentric and what we now call "feel good" movies. He pampers his lunatics with safe places and understanding people so that they may pursue their craziness in complete happiness. It is the sane and rational that suffer in his world and this is an excellent example of that.
From the utterly sweet aunts who poison lonely old men with arsenic-tinged elderberry wine to their nephew "Teddy" who fully believes he's former president Theodore Roosevelt, they are given a kind haven to thrive in. Even the psychotic nephew Jonathan who's inept doctor - played wonderfully by Peter Lorre - who has given him a face that looks like Boris Karloff, has a place in Capra's zany world.
The one individual who has it the hardest is the one who WILL NOT abide his family's lunacy; Cary Grant. The poor fool.
This movie is charming, delightful, amusing and always brings a smile to my face and my heart. Reminding me of the sagely observation by Willy Wonka. "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
Amen.

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I'm very curious as to how I'll feel about that^^movie now that my taste is darker.

you'll probably sympathize with Cary Grant

He's married?

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Good job Cosmic, that looks like a strange flick.

I pretty much agree with everything Cosmic just wrote about this movie...I loved the music score, but not the three songs that were sung. I loved the look of the cities on the hill, with their pastel colors and great depth through 'forced perception' painting technique. The technical achievement in this film with it's traveling mattes and one of the first use of blue screens, make this a must watch for any film historian. I read that every special effect used here was also used in the original Star Wars. This movie was ground breaking! And paved the way for big splashy, special effects, hero pictures like Indiana Jones and Star Wars.

I thought all of the actors were excellent and personable, and that's important to a film that's heavy on visuals and special effects. The actor Sabu, who played Abu the thief was high energy and made the film fun. I also liked the actor who played the Blindman/King. He reminded me of Errol Flynn. And nobody plays evil like Conrad Veidt.

I liked the first half of the movie more than the second half and my favorite moment was the reflection in the pool scene. I'm glad this was nominated as it's an important ground breaking film.


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that very day

Rope was actually one of the first Hitchcock films I saw; I had only seen Birds and maybe Rear Window before it. As such I've always remembered Rope fondly, though that may partly be because I'm very easily impressed by long takes. While not a perfect ruse, the film's attempted illusion of being one continuous take was rather well done, and given the technology and film roll length at the time of production, there wouldn't have been much room for improvement.

The story itself is not quite as interesting as the staging of each shot, taking the mystery element almost completely out of the murder mystery plot, and focusing instead on the rationale of the murderers, and the sick pleasure involved with keeping the body in the middle of a dinner party. I would prefer if the main characters delved more into their philosophy, and how they personally determined who was intellectually superior, because to me that conversation is far more engaging than waiting around for a confrontation.

I might not have liked it quite as much as I did the last time I saw it, but it was still a very pleasant watch. It'll be interesting to see how this stacks up against the other nominations.

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The Thief of Bagdad

Liked this alot. It is a great story; well told, with interesting visuals/set designs and a great sense of adventure. While none of the performances were amazing i liked everybody; even Sabu as Abu who wasn't good at all but his character was interesting and he was charming and entertaining which made me overlook this and just enjoy his presence. Visually i thought it was spectacular, loved the sets and the colours; possibly my favourite thing about the film. Some of the others said that the effects are dated which i'd agree with but it's hard not to be and for a film that is over 75 years old it holds up remarkably well. Maybe i'm just not very observant but there was nothing that horrible that created a problem for me. I mean i'm not about to defend the flying horse or flying genie scene or whatever but i've seen much worse in movies made during the last 20 years. And i don't know even the bad effects have a sort of charm to them, especially when you think that they were groundbreaking in their day. The worst parts were no doubt the songs and the blackface. You kind of have to just accept the latter though since it was common practice back when this was made, obviously it is still cringey but without a doubt alot less so than when i see it in modern times. The songs weren't as bad as i thought they'd be either, i didn't like them but they weren't constant and they were pretty short. My only other complaint isn't really a complaint i just found it unintentionally hilarious, the scene where Ahmad first meets the princess; how quickly they fall in love and kiss was laughable. It was probably a good thing though because i wouldn't have wanted more time spent on the romance. Very fun and exciting film with great visuals.

Earlier Daniel, Cricket and maybe some others pointed out connections that our nominations have. Another one is that the director of the 1924 Thief of Bagdad is Raoul Walsh who also directed my nom: Pursued. I looked it up and it is public domain, skipped through some of it and it looks excellent. Might watch it later.

Really enjoyed this. Glad you nominated it Raul because i doubt i would have given it a chance otherwise.

I think that'll^^be the next one I watch while it's hot.

Let's see if you mention something I noticed that so far no one has mentioned

There are a lot of connections between the nominations in this HoF.

Teresa Wright is in Pursued (1947), The Little Foxes (1941), and Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Patricia Collinge is in The Little Foxes (1941) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Judith Anderson is in Laura (1944) and Pursued (1947)
Charles Bates is in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Pursued (1947)
Hume Cronyn is in Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and he's the writer (adapted by) of Rope (1948).

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I think I will watch Rope (Alfred Hitchcock 1948). I've seen it before and found it a mid Hitchcock film. But I'm looking forward to a rewatch so I can see how Hitch did the 'one long take' look. Yea, I know I could just read about it, but I rather image how it was done, then see for myself how it really was done. I've seen 26 of Hitch's films and one of these days I will catch up on the rest of them

Pursued

Finally watched my own nomination. Great film. Absolutely adored the visuals. I almost went with the Dailymotion copy that to be fair looked pretty good but i found a better one and it looked amazing. It's all thanks to the amazing locations they chose to shoot at as well as the stellar camerawork. There were a few scenes with really quick transitions that looked incredible, they were short but i thought they looked great for example: at the start there's one were it quickly flashes through some of Jebs childhood from when he first joined the Callum family until his horse is shot, and later there's quick flashes through the war from when he got shot to him lying in a hospital bed still dreaming about the war, really great stuff. The mix of western and noir was very interesting, you got the great outdoor shots and the interior scenes are giving as much attention. One of my favourite (couple of) scenes were the whole shooting at the dance part, everything there from the dancing to the shooting in the alley right through to the funeral. It all looked great.

Loved the story too, it was alot more dark and mysterious than i'm used to from films from this time. Then again the only other Raoul Walsh film i've seen is White Heat which is much the same. Mitchum was great, this was only the third performance of his i've seen i think but he's starting to become one of my favourite actors. One thing i read was that a problem some people had with this when it was just released was that they found Mitchums character unlikable. First off ignoring the fact that i don't think he actually needs to be likable in a film like this, i still don't understand why people wouldn't find him likable in some ways or at least deserving of enough sympathy/understanding not to completely hate him. Maybe it was just people were too used to straightforward, black and white either good or bad characters. There's a bit more to Jeb than that; everything about him is driven by his feelings of not belonging, being lied to, not knowing who he really is, etc, maybe these aren't things that everybody can relate to but i think they are at least solid explanations for some of his actions. Coming back from risking his life for the farm as a man and facing rejection from Adam and silence from Mah seemed to confirm this to him and made him completely turn. Unless the complaints are more directed towards Mitchums demeanor in which case i understand even less since alot of his praise as an actor comes from this while playing villains or morally questionable characters at least. I don't think Jeb is easy to pin down and i think the way he acts completely fits Jeb who is fairly untrusting and constantly on guard for obvious reasons. Another thing is that his mother brought him up under a 'you need to be a strong man of the house' type philosophy from some of the stuff she said; Adam was the same way he wasn't scared of Jeb and clearly resented him being seen as a war hero possibly because it made Jeb seem braver or tougher than him, this coupled with Jeb feeling like he was alone wouldn't have went well with him acting more remorseful or outright emotional in my opinion. That's largely how i saw Jeb anyway, i thought he was a great character. His stony-faced 'well if that's how things are then' confrontation with his mother and Thor after the verdict can be seen as bad acting or writing but i think it was the perfect embodiment of how he was brought up and also how he felt himself growing up.

My only real complaint is the dramatic shift in Thor to wanting to kill him. I understand why so it's not really about that it's more the dramatic shift in her performance, i wasn't crazy about the scene when she first tells her mum her plans; don't think Teresa Wright was good there, felt a bit too 'wicked witch of the west' like over the top to me. Otherwise Wright was good as well. One thing i probably should have disliked and i'll totally understand if others find it a problem is how disjointed the story is. It seems to start off on a clear direction to tell the story of what happened to Jeb and who is following him and why, then after Adams death it completely shifts into a romance/revenge plot that quickly resolves itself before we return to the main story for the ending. An odd way to tell a story but i personally thought it worked, it was at least worth it for that amazing finale. My god the music and visuals during that finale, it makes me not even care how convenient it was that he suddenly remembers what happened. Great ending.

I'm really glad this was the one i picked as i thought it was excellent. I'll understand if some of you have certain problems with it and i'm not even denying it has these problems but it personally really worked for me. Hope you guys like it as much as i did.

While looking for a poster i found a few screenshots of the him dreaming of the war transition scene. Obviously they don't look great when not in motion but i thought it was interesting seeing them as screenshots since that scene felt so seamless to me at least:

Not only did you steal my screenshots, but you also stole my Raoul Walsh fact!

Glad that you really enjoyed it Camo, your thoughts are pretty much consistent with mine in that we thought the camera work and way it was directed was its strongest aspect, really elevates it to the next level. I agree that the main problems are the convenient tonal shifts in the story when characters suddenly hate/like each other, but I guess it's not too long overall, it didn't really detract from my enjoyment.

I really want to watch more Raoul Walsh now, I know White Heat and The Public Enemy are his most famous, and then there is The Big Trail which stars John Wayne in his first big role and is one of Dave Kehr's favourite ever films, that one looks great to me.

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I didn't even realize. As i said it's public domain, i skipped to a random part and watched 5 minutes of it. Looks amazing, definitely planning on watching the whole thing soon.

The only other one of his i've seen is White Heat, which was good but i didn't love it. Couldn't really tell you why. Hadn't heard of The Big Trail even though i'm a big fan of Kehr, will make sure to watch that. Another one that i actually mentioned earlier in the thread (it was one i was considering nominating) is Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Olivia De Havilland. I've read some things about it being one of his very best and one of the most underappreciated films of the 40s so i'm going to make sure to see that as well.

Yeah, I got the 40s version ready to watch, played it and then noticed as it started that it was the wrong one, but I look forward to watching it too. Both are meant to be great I have heard

Heard about The Big Trail in a John Wayne doc I watched the other day too. Strawberry Blonde sounds really interesting, I need to watch more of James Cagney too. I think I've only seen him in Ceiling Zero and Yanke Doodle Dandy, which are both great films, and he's fantastic in, I wouldn't have minded nominating the latter for here but I am not sure everyone would like it, I was surprised I did so much.