1930s Hall of Fame Part 2

I still love this film. Any film which can make you laugh five times in the first five minutes is on to something. There are a whole bunch of quotable lines in here. It’s just a lot of fun, the characters and their road trip love story are endearing, it really makes me smile.

Its influence on Bugs Bunny is well documented but I think it must have been pretty influential on a lot of things subsequently.

One highlight is when posing as an argumentative married couple to avoid detection they end up getting completely carried away.

I suppose one criticism is that it starts to drag a little bit just before the end and could have been a little shorter and snappier, but it’s hard to begrudge the running time when it’s so enjoyable overall.

I’ve read some fascinating behind the scenes trivia – apparently neither of the leads wanted to be in it at all and Clark Gable was even sent to the film studio as a sort of punishment. The success of the film and all its awards came as a surprise and revived the film studio’s fortunes.

It Happened One Night


It was a rewatch, I really enjoy this film, I consider it a feel good rom com that is super entertaining and that you don't want to end. There is nothing that special about it in the sens that the story is pretty basic, the style isn't anything that unusual, there isn't any sort of message in it, it's just a well told classic story. I was interested in the characters and was entertained the whole way through, which is better then pretty much all the other films I've seen so far in this HOF (even if, as I said, I don't think there's anything special about It Happened One Night)


7,8/10

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I've read about how they both hated doing it. and yes, the influences are massive. The list on just the hitchhiking scene alone was astounding.
The arguing couple is great and I really enjoyed the smart remarks thrown back by the father in the opening scene. He had some great ones.


And sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it, @Pussy Galore or any so far

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I've enjoyed it, I just didn't find it particularly groundbreaking/special/original.

I gotcha. Kinda forgot the opening line of your review and remembered final lines more.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde the rare Oscar winning horror film from the 1930's. This was a rewatch for me and I kinda felt the running time more on second watch. I enjoyed how the two stories focuses on the sexual habits of both characters. Jekyll is trying to do things the right way with courting and a long engagement with Muriel while Hyde basically just picks up a prostitute and abuses her for the film. It's a great subtext for the film, which worked for me on the first watch but less so on repeat viewing.



Frederic March is very good, the stunt work helps give Hyde a different aspect to his character so we don't just rely on murder and make-up. The supporting characters were all well-defined and the film has an impressive budget.

I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang is a brilliant film (and a true(ish) story). Paul Muni plays James Allen a WWI vet who comes home from the war and wishes not to live an unhappy life as a clerk but rather as an engineer. As work is hard to find he falls into poverty and is railroaded into prison working on a Chain Gang. Allen escapes from the gang and makes something of himself only to get caught and sent back to the gang.


I enjoyed how the film took a frank look at the prison system of the 20's/30's. From what I've learned and read about in history this was similar to what a number of people went through at this time(especially black people who would get arrested for "loitering" and end up on a chain gang for 30 years). Muni is spectacular in this going from naive to destitute to desperate and I love all the hidden criticisms that the film has with lawyers, love, and religion.



Great nomination @PussyGalore I hope you finish this so the film scores.

Red Dust



Let’s get the racism out of the way first. A little bit is to be expected I suppose, but the repeated attitude towards the natives is unpleasant character of Hoy is on another level of embarrassing and offensive.

It always surprises me when I watch older films just how much people slap each other. Did people slap each other a lot more in the past or is it a movie affectation? I’ve never seen people in real life going around slapping each other. That’s not really a criticism of this film, just a curious observation.

Clark Gable’s character is not a nice guy, but I suppose that is kind of the point. In the end he decides to be a bit more decent. I didn’t find Jean Harlow’s character particularly endearing, she was a bit irritating. Emotionally I didn’t find it particularly engaging. It was a fairly unromantic for a romantic drama.

There are a few good lines. But sometimes the writing seemed a little off, like when they are all saying what a relief it is Vantine isn’t there… and then she shows up. I wasn’t quite sure whether it was supposed to be funny, it definitely wasn’t subtle. The ending wasn’t particularly strong either.

What I did really like about it was the way it looked. Especially the scenes in the rain. I liked the way the rainstorm reflected the rising passions and tensions between the characters, that was pretty effective. There was a good sense of setting.

And with a [correction] deuce, @Siddon comes in hot at the finish line!!
EXCELLENT job!!!

***And thanks, again, @pahaK for catching my mistake with posting Siddon with 3 reviews. MUCH OBLIGED!***

I felt the same why with Jekyll and Hyde and their "paths" taken when it came to sexual attraction as well as the acrobatic stunts of Hyde.

With Fugitive I felt the same way about the layers regarding lawyers and so forth. I found the fact that the "boards" they spoke with were always stone-faced, grim looking men that never spoke. It was a great symbolic stonewall. So much better than if they had dialogue.

And with Red Dust I agree about the rain scenes and when it came to "slapping" I do know from conversations and the past memory there was a good probability that folks settled things with a fist a lot more often. While at the same time, once settled, it was settled and I've heard quite a few stories of guys who met, fist fought, and became the closest of friends.
How glamorized and/or BS those stories were to actual scenarios is anyone's guess.

Just wanting to point out that Red Dust wasn't Siddon's review You might want to fix that on review link post too.

DOH! THANKS pahaK! I definitely need to correct that

for myself, I just finished The Goddess, which I enjoyed, and will be writing up a review, most likely, tomorrow.

The charm of this film resides mainly in the characters of Nick and Nora Charles, their interactions, their witty repartee, their amusingly alarming drinking, their chemistry. When the two of them are on screen it’s pretty much 6 out of 5 stars. William Powell and Myrna Loy are fantastic.

When they’re absent (which was a good deal more of the running time than I’d remembered), it’s not quite as sparkling. The mystery is convoluted and even on a repeat viewing hard to keep track of who everyone is and just how they’re involved with each other. But it works as a counterbalance to the lightness of the comic parts (the dog!) and some of the eccentric characters are amusing enough in their own right.

There are more quotably funny lines in this than in three or four other films put together, many of them booze related. But the delivery is just as important. I like that this film features a married couple rather than a ‘meet cute’ type storyline. And the dinner party denouement is great fun. Definitely still a favourite!

FULL agreement regarding Loy and Powell - they were truly fantastic together!

And Thursday brings us to 7 out of 11 Lists in!!!

We is SMOKIN!

I'll probably end up watching all The Thin Man series. I'm guessing they become more comical and less about the mystery. I know the last one has Gloria Grahame in it, so I have to watch that one!

they are a fun watch, but sadly, they do get a bit lackluster after the first couple. But, still, I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

The Goddess

I must say, unknown (to myself) gems like this are one of the primary reasons I have become such an addict to these Hall of Fame threads.
To discover films I would NEVER come across on my own or make the time to check out.
So I have to thank @MijaFrost for, not only joining in on this HoF but for nominating a film I would have completely missed out on.

Understandably, Ruan Lingyu is truly extraordinary in this. Her emotional depth and nuance is both captivating and catches at the heart strings. She was magnificent to watch and heartbreaking to see her go through all that she had to. Especially the ending. For the love of her son and pursuit of a better life for him.
So, while all of that is a given, and very well expressed in every previous review, I would like to mention an aspect that hasn't been. Or rather, in only a sentence or two of valid disdain.
And that is the character of The Boss played by Zhizhi Zhang.
While Ruan is brilliant, a good protagonist NEEDS a proper antagonist for us, the viewers, to completely side with them and hope and cheer for them. And Zhizhi Zhang supplies it in spades. He is the epitome of slime ball. Even his smile is sleazy, and that sort of filthy rock and a despicable hard place makes for an excellent counterpoint for Ruan's character.
While, at times, there was almost a caricature attitude to his manner, it still remains as a solid "villain" to our "heroine".

Another aspect I appreciated was the catty dismissal when she attempted to get her son a proper education and what that says about the lesser quality of the self-proclaimed normal society. Nice touch that.
As well as the insinuation of "walking the streets" as opposed to taking a graphic perception of it. Giving us a more focused look on her trapped situation and her striving to provide a better life for her son to the point of self sacrifice to the very end.

Again, thank you Mija for nominating this.

I watched Humanity and Paper Balloon 2,3 days ago and The Roaring Twenties today, I'll briefly review them tomorrow or saturday!


I only have Virtue and Red Dust (which I need to find a link) and Mad Love and Dr Jekyll which I have rented at my library.

I'm sorry I don't have more in-depth thoughts to share...

Red Dust



I don't think I would watch this again, but it was entertaining. I felt bad for the woman's husband, and I would hope he would learn the truth of what happened and leave her, because he deserved much better than that.
Jean Harlow's character was kind of grating, but she is so sexy. After viewing this I went on Google just to look up photos of her. (She died so young. RIP.)

Mad Love



Delightful! Dark, obsessive infatuation, from a man who seemed to have always been rejected by women for being too "strange." I empathized with him. It was sad to see him sink into complete mental decay, but if he never had perfect sanity to begin with, I suppose it might have been inevitable.
Then there's the young, beautiful woman who could never understand him, but who takes advantage of his fixated attraction towards her, and receives far more than she anticipated.
A cautionary tale to avoid acquiring stalkers or people who are more interested in you than you are in them?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde



Another film that turns into a story of a young woman being stalked by an enraged, imbalanced person.
I didn't like how ugly this Hyde was, and I wanted him to look like more of a normal person. If this film were actually criticizing domestic abuse and violence, it would have been more effective to have Hyde as an attractive sociopath, rather than someone who repulses people at their first sight of him. This way, it's easy to think of him as not being really "human" as Ivy said, instead of the more insidious evil of someone appearing charming but being a devil in disguise.

sent you a link in comments