Director of the Month Project

This is on the Mildred Pierce DVD. Here's a brief clip.

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Will start watching the films in about (half) a week. Then I'm finally done with my school stuff.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Captain Blood

I watched this last night and enjoyed it. It had been such a long time since I'd originally seen it, that I remembered next to nothing. So it was almost like a first time watch for me. I have to mostly agree with what you guys said about it, so some of what I'm writing will sound familiar.

It did feel like a modern action-adventure blockbuster movie. I was impressed with how Curtiz made the camera angles and shots seem modern. I guess I was expecting the camera work to be more plodding, but nope...the camera work was actually very dynamic and fluid. We talked about what Curtiz's style of film making was...One thing I had heard about him on a documentary was as he had came from Germany and worked in German style of expressionism cinematography, that many of his American films employed a long shot down a road or alley with a silhouetted shadow of a person on a background wall. I've seen that shot in other of his films, but I was totally surprised to see that in the first 30 minutes of Captain Blood. Very cool!

I thought Errol Flynn had lots of roguish charm. He would have made a great 007/James Bond. This was his first starring role and at time I did detect that he was doing an 'acting voice' but for most of the film, it sounded like his own natural voice. I was surprised that he had such long hair for the movie. I mean guys didn't have long hair in the 30s at least not in Hollywood. The other pirate captain, played by Basil Rathbone also had long hair. I wonder if that was their own hair or extensions? It did look the part, just surprised to see it.

Olivia de Havilland sure looked young in this. She didn't really get to do much more than be the girl that Captain Blood gets. One would have to see some of her other movies to see her get a chance to really act. Still I liked her and she was pretty when young.

What really blew me away was how big of a production this was. The scenes at the harbor or Port Royal was huge, that had to be a real place that was dressed to look like the 1600s. The buildings looked Spanish style to me, I wonder if that was shot on Catalina Island?

The ship battles looked damn impressive too, I guess I was expecting toy models. But geez at least in one shot we're seeing a real ship from a distances. And the decks and holds of the ship looked authentic too.

This is probably sacrilege, but I really wish this one had been in color, I think if it had it would be much more well known.

Definitely, i hope her roles improve in her later Flynn/Curtiz films. She was fine acting-wise here but she had nothing to do like you said, i'm a fan of her in GWTW so i already know she can act. Still Fontaine>Olivia for me at this point.

Yeah, it was very impressive for its time and just looked really good in general. Especially the first proper fight scene with the buildings being hit and bricks falling on people inside, looked very authentic. I believe this was Flynn's breakout role so i'm surprised the studio had this much faith in him immediately as it must have cost quite a lot for its time.

Nah, i agree. Don't really think it's sacrilege, some films just look better in colour and vice-versa and a big action/sea film certainly fits into the former.

I've watched Dodge City. I'm not sure I have all that much to say, but I'll try to write a little bit up.

There were no 3-strip Technicolor adventure films made in 1935.

Pretty impressive director this month -- ASTOUNDING amount of movies by this man and a few of my favorites as a kid. And you guys picked some really good ones to watch too.

But there could have been, Becky Sharp was made in 1935. Though according to an old review, the skin tones looked like broiled salmon.

I guess I forgot to say anything about Dodge City. It was ok but nothing groundbreaking. I liked Errol Flynn a decent amount in this film and Olivia Dehavilland seemed underutilized again. I like the beginning scenes with the trains definitely and I thought the film had a pretty strong ending, but there were a lot of lulls in the middle. The Technicolor made the film look pretty solid. A decent film, but not one I will rush to see again. Sorry I don't have much to say since I didn't write about it immediately when I saw it.

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I watched Dodge City last night. The funny thing is I didn't really like the story all that much, but then I watched a mini documentary on the importance on the film and what Michael Curtiz achieved in it...and surprise! I got a whole new outlook on the film. When you have noted film historians admiring a film, it's easy to see why they admired the film and start appreciation it more than I had.

Dodge City, doesn't have a memorable script and it seems run of the mill with shoot outs, bar fights, train fights and horse riding stunts that we've seen a million times before ...only as the film historians pointed out, Dodge City wasn't clichéd, as it pioneered all those, now, common place story ideas.

I learned something else, that in the 30s westerns were considered pop corn b-movies mainly for kids...then John Ford changed things with Stagecoach. All of a sudden Hollywood wanted to make big budget A-movies with there biggest stars. And Dodge City is big! Technicolor in 1939 was still something new and expensive, so the studios didn't make many Technicolor films. Add to that big cost, you have Michael Curtiz going big! in the scenes with the biggest bar fight I've ever seen. I mean look at all those extras, that's a big scene. And outdoors he has a lot of on location big shots with grand action. Today we take this all in stride, but in 1939 Dodge City was something special.