Movie Review: It Happened One Night (1934)
This movie really drew me in. I was all suckered in by the "man helps girl run away from her father and arranged marriage, and fall in love" until... tragedy struck. A scratch on my netflix DVD kept me from finishing. If I didn't have so many other movies to get through, I'd request another copy.
There's no question that I will add this back to my queue as soon as this quest is over.
Movie Review: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
This was a good flick. Nothing too impressive, but that may have been my own fault. I had a hard time distinguishing some of the characters, as they all began to look the same as time went on. I guess everyone will tend to let themselves go after a couple years out at sea.
Being that it was black and white, and everyone was wearing, you guess it, black and white, there weren't even many costume clues I could use. The scenes shot out at sea were very impressive, considering it was 1935, and there was no such thing as a "blue screen."
Movie Review: Grand Hotel (1932)
I'll be honest, I couldn't watch this one. Typical thief falls in love with the target plot. About half way through, I started doing other things, like cleaning up around the house while it was on.
Maybe someday I'll give it another try, but this one just didn't grab my attention at all.
Movie Review: Cimarron (1931)
So far, this is the first movie I've seen from my list that I haven't liked.
The story centers around an old West pioneer, who helps establish some of the early towns of the great land rush. He becomes known for standing up for equal rights, and fighting for his beliefs. As time goes on, the thirst for adventure becomes greater, and he continually abandons his family, more and more often, for longer periods of time each trip until he finally disappears.
Even though our hero was a champion for equality, he was a terrible husband and a worse father. I found the movie the phenomenal up until the last act, where the end of the movie made absolutely no sense to me. It's really tough to talk about my problems with the movie without "spoiling" it, so I'm just going to leave it at that.
Movie Review: The Broadway Melody (1929)
Not a bad movie. I really wish I had a little more to say about it, honestly.
Thanks to my days from being a part of my High School drama club, I have a soft spot for musicals. I played rolls in West Side Story, Guys and Dolls and our own medly that our director came up, piecing together a lot of classic bits.
Allthough, I wouldn't really call this a musical, it's more of a movie about a bunch of people doing a Broadway musical. Two sisters try to make their big break, and end up in a big "love triangle," that really ends up as more of a "love square" with a lot of diagonal lines in the middle. It becomes a little show in the middle, as we are pretty light on action, and the humor might not translate well being almost 80 years old, but there's plenty of character development, and a great deal of personal conflict between all the characters.
All in all it's worth a watch, but I don't feel like I was missing anything not having seen it before. This would be a great canidate for a remake, and I might try to talk some of my local film making buddies into giving it a shot. I even have a few folks in mind for casting.
Movie Review – All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Perhaps the finest war movie I have ever had the pleasure of watching. To borrow from the movie description:
"It's not about one country, it's about all countries. It's not about one war, it's about all wars."
Based on the anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, this film captured my attention and never let go. Anyone who passes on giving this film a watch is doing themselves a great injustice.