1940's Hall of Fame II

I've got plenty of space on my list Two of the nominated films (mine plus one other) will definitely be there, but there's still room for anything else that knocks my socks off in the meantime.

@Blix the Goblin

1) The Adventures of Robin Hood
2) Objective, Burma!
3) Gentleman Jim
4) Dodge City
5) Captain Blood
6) The Dawn Patrol
7) The Sea Hawk
8) They Died With Their Boots On
9) Santa Fe Trail
10) Rocky Mountain
11) Desperate Journey
12) Northern Pursuit
13) The Charge of the Light Brigade
14) The Adventures of Don Juan
15) Dive Bomber
Sweet! I've seen most of those and every one I've seen is a good one. I don't think I've ever seen the ones in red

Besides the one's you have listed I've seen and really liked:

Four's a Crowd (1938) (which also has Rosalind Russell in it)
Virginia City (1940)
Against All Flags (1952)
The Sun Also Rises (1957)

I enjoyed those but not enough to be a favorite. Four's a Crowd is certainly underrated though I'll admitRocky Mountain is my favorite later-era Errol Flynn movie. A very straightforward but highly entertaining western that also features the always lovable Slim Pickens. Watch it!

I'll probably go with Odd Man Out next. My eta for watching it is Thursday.

I just finished rewatching Odd Man Out. It wasn't quite like I remembered, so I think I had parts of it mixed up with another film. Now I'm trying to think what that other movie might have been.

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Maybe The Third Man?

You might be onto something there. They do both have "Man" in the titles haha.

Well there both from the same director, so who knows. I haven't ever seen Odd Man Out but I liked The Third Man. Well, I hope to able to watch another nom in a day or two.

Oh...I started watching His Girl Friday again...last night. I like it even better the second time around as I know what each scene is about so I can focus more on the dialogue and inflections.

They both have Carol Reed's abundance of Dutch angles and shadowy cinematography.

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I Remember Mama

“What do you have to do that’s so important?”
“I have to chloroform a cat!”

(Spoilers, I suppose)

This movie reminded me of two things. The first is the TV show The Waltons. I don’t mean this as a pejorative comparison at all: I grew up with the Waltons and when it was good it was good. There’s the large, poor but good family, the eldest, a writer looking back on their childhood with all its quirks and life lessons (there’s even Ellen Corby who played the Walton Grandma as a timid aunt). As a film this doesn’t have time to get tiresome and this slice of nostalgic life is heartwarming and heartrending, sentimental perhaps but never sickly sweet. The second is Meet Me In St. Louis - a similar nostalgic look back to a simpler time. But while that is a lush, colourful musical version, this is much plainer, quieter, focusing on poorer people but still with that same emphasis on family.

A couple of my favourite things: that the cat is called Uncle Elizabeth! Mama’s concern that, “It’s not good for her to grow up believing I can fix everything.”

The only thing I didn’t like so much was Mama approaching the famous author, as it made me cringe a little. Although even here, the humour levels it out with Mama finding the recipe for goulash. Throughout, the tone shifts deftly between humour and sadness: Uncle Chris’s account book throws a new light on his earlier, humourous claim to be a better physician than any doctor. It’s also very quiet in its triumphant moments, no big melodramatic moments.

There are more visually impressive films out there, but I could have easily watched another hour of this family just living their lives. I can’t believe I’d never heard of it before, although I’ve since noticed it on a couple of ‘best of’ lists out there. A wonderful film.

Not reading that^^yet as I'm actually on a smoke break halfway through.

Good! that was my goal to find a lesser known 1940's movie that I loved, and thought worthy of an Hof...Hopefully a few members will remember, I Remember Mama for the 1940's Top 100 Countdown.

Glad you liked it Thursday, I liked The Waltons too.

I've heard of this movie all my life, but it never actually occured to me to look it up until it was nominated in this Hall of Fame. I was surprised to see how highly rated it actually is. I found it quite funny to just read Thursday's thoughts on the movie, because I was also thinking of The Waltons. The funny part about that is that I've never seen that TV show. The movie actually reminded me of the previously nominated How Green Was My Valley, and I remember people comparing that to The Waltons. Basically, this movie reminded me of what I perceive The Waltons to be.

I liked everything about this movie but didn't absolutely love anything. It started and ended well, and everything in between was just as good. I would describe it as warm, touching, and pleasant. It had more humor than I expected, and I thought it was used in a very appropriate and effective manner. I liked all of the characters. I didn't think I was going to like the uncle at first, but he ended up being one of my favorites. I'm not sure what else to say about it. Like Thursday said, it doesn't especially stand out as far as how it looked, but I don't think of that as a weakness. When a movie looks great, depending on what type of movie it is, I'll often look at that as an added bonus. This movie was just a very nice watch with characters I cared about.

I need to get my movie watching butt in gear and watch that one. I don't actually remember much about I Remember Mama, except I really liked it. OK soon...

holding off reading the reviews for I remember Mama until I watch it, but reps all the same

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hint....The Waltons...

OK, I'm off to watch some movie, maybe even my own nom

half a mo'! Didn't we compare How Green Was My Valley to the Waltons? lol

I meant to finish my Odd Man Out write-up this afternoon but, I don't know what happened. The day just flew by and I don't even know what I did to pass the time.

I think this is a sign that I'm getting old.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Thought this was pretty great. Watched it late at night when i was slightly tired and it was a great movie to relax to. Wasn't really what i was expecting, i thought it would be a slapstick film about Mrs Muir and her husband (Thought this is who Rex Harrison would be) and her kids dealing with a ghost in a lighthearded and silly way. Didn't expect to actually see the ghost nevermind him being the co-lead. Think my ignorance going in was for the best as i would've been very skeptical of how a comedic romance between a living person and a ghost could work, i think it did tho. Outside of the twist in the premise it wasn't really original; it was basically a variation on a gruff, grumpy man and strong-willed woman having to spend time together and eventually developing feelings for each other. It stood up well on its own on the back of good performances and dialogue, it was also pretty funny. I'm not sure i bought into their relationship that much, i mean what was the benefit in him keeping her around when he tells her to stay during her sister and mothers visit? Up to that point he had had two fairly hostile arguments with her. I suppose the simplest answer is loneliness but then why not any of the former occupants? Surely this means that he came to enjoy her company for some reason where he didn't the others and i don't think that was shown up to that point. Felt more like an empty way to force the relationship on the audience, from this point on they were making it clear to us that he liked her without actually showing why. The only other explanation i can think of is it was because she stood up to him and that cliche bothers me more than no explanation at all. Not a big deal, it's just that this could have approached favourite territory with more effort put into their relationship as i thought it was a great idea to have them fall in love over recounting his life for the book. In the end i liked it alot anyway. The last scene in particular was really beautiful, it made up for a few of my earlier problems.

Don't think it is important but i was just wondering was it explained why Mrs Muir could see him and others couldn't (it's later revealed Anna could too but that isn't explained at all and i think of it more as a convenient plot device so i'm not even counting that, and even if i did it doesn't change anything i'm saying here)? I probably missed it, was it just because she was the owner of the house or because he decided to show himself? It was mentioned later on that he's there because she believes he is but that doesn't actually work at all, she felt his presence in the home before she had any clue that it was supposed to be haunted; at that point it was clear that she didn't believe there was a ghost there was no reason for her to yet she still sensed his presence, she was only told afterwards. It also doesn't really work if he was referring to him appearing as an actual person because surely all of the former homeowners who were chased out believed he was there too or they wouldn't have been chased out. Not bothered either way as i loved Daniels interruptions and meddling when others were around, i just don't think it works as an explanation.

This is basically just all of my complaints, that's because this is one of those films i'm not really sure how to go into the things i enjoyed without being really boring. I did have a really good time watching it though.

Beauty and the Beast (1946) - Jean Cocteau

To be completely honest, I didn't particularly like it, despite having a big admiration for Cocteau's artistic vision. From a technical standpoint, this film was near perfect and some of the shots were truly breathtaking. I really liked the settings, especially richly textured Beast's castle, full of Baroque features and fancy antiques. The phantasmagorical visuals that Cocteau and cinematographer Henri Alekan managed to create, with the methodical use of settings and some inovative special effects, were truly fascinating and in my opinion by far the best ascpect of the film. I thought the soundtrack was really good and representative of the established mood and the costume designs were on point as well. I guess my main complaint is ,I couldn't really fulfill the director's plead at the beggining and transfer myself into this world of magical and surreal. I just couldn't connect with the story, nor the characters. I pretty much disliked the performances and wasn't really a fan of their theatrical delievery of lines, which sounded more like a recitation than actual delievery at times. Despite how lovely Jossette Day looked as Beauty, I thought her performance was very bland and not convincing. I didn't really feel her gradual falling for the Beast, which was partly director's fault. At no time did I believe that they were actually falling in love and that was a big problem for me. The Beauty's transition from complete apathy to caring for Beast wasn't very believable and should've been much more sharply and delicately excecuted. Another problem was how uninteresting and nondimensional the characters was. They completely lacked any depth and were painted overly cartoonish, especially the sisters and Avenant. My guess is they were intended to provide comic relief, but instead I mostly find them annoying. All of this contributed to me not caring for the characters at all. In the end I'm glad I saw this for its beautiful cinematography, but sadly I struggled to get anything more out of it.