1940's Hall of Fame II

Prior to watching this, only films I've seen from Howard Hawks were "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado", both westerns from his later carrer which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially the former one. So I was kind of curious to see how he'd fair with different genres, despite not particularly caring for screwball comedy. Sadly, I have to admit I didn't really like it. I found it to be an incredibly frustrating watch, because of its over the top fast-paced dialogue. I didn't really find it amusing nor funny, mainly because of the fact that lines were delievered so fast that I barely had any time to process them. Overall, I think the dialogue was way too incomprehensible and not particularly funny, so I guess I didn't really see the appeal of an aspect this film is praised for. Secondly, I disliked majority of the characters, particularly Walter Burns (Cary Grant). I get that this was a rather cynical view on the world of journalism and politics and that characters were probably deliberately painted as vultures, but disliking almost every one of them made it really hard for me to enjoy this film. Walter Burns was probably the worst of them, with his despicable, immoral and filthy schemes and incredible amount of arrogance and selfishness. The entire plotline of him trying to separate his ex-wife from her fiancee annoyed me to no end. And the fact that Bruce (Ralph Bellamy), the only character I liked got screwed at the end because of their self-centerdness made it even worse for me. So from a comedic standpoint, His Girl Friday was a miss for me. But looking at it from a satire perspective, it definitely had some interesting things to say about journalistic sensationalism and ethics. I liked the scene of crying Mollie Maloy (Helen Mack), desperately trying to get the attention of the reporters in the meeting room, but failing to do so. As evidently none of them cares about the core of her story, just a shiny surface they can revise and print it on the cover. That was a very good scene and I think it perfectly illustrated the values those journalists were prioritizing.

Even though this wasn't my cup of tea, I'm still glad it was nominated.

Someone else felt similar about Walter Burns. I must be weird! because I thought Walter Burns (Cary Grant) was a pretty cool dude and I thought Bruce (Ralph Bellamy) was a drip who deserved what he got.

sorry to hear you didn't enjoy His Girl Friday, Jeff. The quick pace DOES cause it to be hit or miss for a lot of people.
And I do appreciate what you had to say about the satire regarding the press. They LITERALLY got away with murder.

BTW, what did ya think of Rosalind?

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Maybe it's because I'm from a place that is known for very quick speech (and complaining about how slow "mainlanders" speak), but I thought the pace of dialogue in His Girl Friday was perfectly fine.

Actually, I found it somewhat refreshing.

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Mr. Lucky on TCM tonight!

I liked her and thought she had a good chemistry with her fellow co-stars. I believe this was actually my first time seeing one of her films.

Yeah, she definitely held her own, that's for sure. This is the second of her earlier movies that I've seen (can't remember the first) but I had only knew her from Auntie Mame from '58 (which she rocks) so I had always wondered what she looked like in her earlier years and was so glad to actually see a few, including this one.

itcanbe, can'tit?

Gentleman Jim



I didn't care for it. I like my boxing movies to be about heart and I have to have the feeling that the main boxer is an interesting character. I didn't have either of those with this flick. I didn't think Errol Flynn was bad perse, but I didn't get fully invested in the Gentleman Jim character. Like GBG said, this movie seems to be more about the art of boxing rather than having character development, and I think it took a wrong turn going that way. It felt like theatrical boxing too, it didn't feel like genuine fights. I know Sullivan was past his prime but would he really have fought that bad? I also didn't find it believable that Jim gets knocked into the water and no less than 30 seconds he wins by a knockout. Just not realistic for me. I still won't count out Walsh though as I really liked his directorial work in Pursued, but this was a misstep for me from Walsh.

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I thought you might like Gentleman Jim. I got a feeling that Raoul Walsh was trying to include lots of light comic bits, which I liked, but maybe that's why the film didn't seem realistic to you?

I hope @Blix the Goblin shows up. So far he hasn't posted any reviews. Blix are you around?

You don't watch a film like Gentleman Jim for realism. It's massive entertainment. Hell, I rarely watch any film for realism's sake, let alone a 1940s Warner Brothers epic.

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my ONLY complaint was the actually boxing itself. It did seemed staged. But I loved the movie

Neither have I. But, yeah, I hope we'll hear something soon because not only does it affect this HoF, but the 13th, as well.



As for His Girl Friday and the supposed speed of the talking, I don't hear it! I really don't. I know they aren't speaking slowly, but my God! Why can't people understand everything that is being said? That really doesn't make sense to me because I really don't think they are speaking THAT fast. I really, really don't.

Then again, I have been accused my entire life of being a fast talker. I know what I want to say and I say it. But then I think that if some people can't really follow along with what they are saying in this movie, or because of the speed at which they speak it gives them a headache, or is annoying to them, then I guess I wouldn't be able to have a conversation with anyone who wasn't too crazy about the film because I would just end up giving the person a headache with my fast talking.


Anyway, watch this clip:

As far as I am concerned, this is a good number of films from the 40's (and not just His Girl Friday).

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

I had never heard of this movie before it was nominated and I didn't read any of the reviews before I watched it, so this was a completely blind watch. So this guy gets off the bus after arriving in a small town. In the station, I'm wondering what he's doing. He's got a gun with him and he's sticking gum behind the map on the wall. Wondering is the key word for establishing some mystery and grabbing my interest. This continues to the next scenes; who are these characters and what are their motivations? The main character comes off as a big jerk (like many of the great characters), calling the girl Sitting Bull and basically being rude to everyone. There ends up being at least 6 characters that carve out a nice niche; the main character, the crime boss, his girl, the agent, and the two locals. They all add something important to the movie and none of them are alike. The story is nothing special but it plays out adequately. There is not a lot of violence, but it is very effective when it comes. There is plenty of great dialogue and camerawork. I wonder if the famous line by Sean Connery in The Untouchables about bringing a knife to a gunfight was influenced by this movie. The scene with the merry-go-round was a big highlight. I loved the setting of the small Mexican town. I'm giving it a conservative rating for now but this has a good chance of making my 40's list.

I meant to watch Ride the Pink Horse last night, but got caught up in other things. I should get to it sometime today though, especially since I'm not working tomorrow.

It's not always likely that I'll like a GB nomination as our taste is just very different. There were three things that gave me hope; Cary Grant, the con angle, and the gambling angle. I liked the opening scene of the movie on the pier. Like the last HOF movie I watched, this opening scene created a bit of mystery and got me interested. For me, the next hour plus was merely amusing, a little light for my preference. I always like Grant and the supporting cast was solid, although I could have used more Bickford and Carney. The last half hour came as a surprise to me, and that's what I'll remember the movie for. They had a chance at an extra dark miserable ending, but I'll take what I can get. I thought it was pretty good.

I thought this was interesting, I was looking for photos of His Girl Friday and noticed that Rosalind Russell's striped jacket was done in different colors. I wonder if any of those colors was what it really looked like?

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I had wondered about that, myself, going through images when i posted my reviews.

and I agree @cricket about the merry go round scene. Definitely a highlight and made much more of an impact. I think a few others remarked on that as well - for good reason.

I like the faded green on the far right, but I think when watching His Girl Friday I imagined something in a navy blue for some reason.

Cary Grant's jacket is also different in each of those pictures.

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