1942: The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

1942: The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

I'll never forget the first time I heard this narration below.  It was 1995. I was a student at the University of Caen, in France, and I was watching a double-feature on campus of The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil:

"The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873.  Their splendor lasted throughout all the years that saw their Midland town spread and darken into a city.   In that town in those days, all the women who wore silk or velvet knew all the other women who wore silk or velvet and everybody knew everybody else's family horse and carriage.  The only public conveyance was the streetcar.  A lady could whistle to it from an upstairs window, and the car would halt at once, and wait for her, while she shut the window, .. put on her hat and coat, ...went downstairs, ...found an umbrella, ...told the 'girl' what to have for dinner...and came forth from the house.  Too slow for us nowadays, because the faster we're carried, the less time we have to spare."


In some ways, this narration, and the film in general, changed my life. It made me aware of what is still probably my biggest obsession:  life is moving too fast, how can we slow it down? 


Welles conveys this theme beautifully throughout the film.  We see it, experience it, feel it, and know it on some level to be true.  It's a film of a bygone era that when it's all over makes me want to scrap everything and go back in time 140 years.  


Although this film is one of the most famous victims of studio interference and recutting, the version that remains still has great power to move me.  And, as always with Welles, the movie humbles me with its absolute mastery of the medium.




Other contenders for 1942: This is a year where I fortunately have fewer gaps.  The only major films I haven't seen are Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur, George Stevens' Woman of the Year, and Luchino Visconti's Ossessione.  This is also one of those years where I only have one close runner-up.  I like Casablanca, but it's never been a favorite of mine.  I really like Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be.  It's probably my second favorite of what I've seen so far from the director.  And, I love The Palm Beach Story.  In fact, I might like it the most of all the Preston Sturges films I've seen.  My only true runner-up though would be Raoul Walsh's Gentleman Jim.  For me, it's one of Flynn's greatest performances, and like my top pick for 1941 (Sergeant York), it's a biopic that pulls me into Corbett's life and completely satisfies me with the telling of his story.   Ultimately though, I have to give the top pick to this Welles film, which has always been very personal to me.  Its themes, its grace and charm, and even its playful streak, affect me deeply. 


8/30/10 I watched George Stevens' Woman of the Year.  It covers some very interesting territory at times, probably more Mankiewicz than Stevens.  But it doesn't feel totally fulfilling.  But when it's mining some of the possible shortcomings of marriage, it's as depthful and adult as anything I've seen from this period.  


9/7/10 I watched Humphrey Jennings' Listen to Britain.  It's an interesting twenty minute short film that uses sound to drive the narrative.  But it's mostly a propaganda film that I admired more than really liked or loved.


9/8/10 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur.  I found it to be one of the less accomplished films I've seen from Hitch, particularly the second half.  But as with all the great director's work, there are several excellent scenes, including the initial explosion, as well as some unexpected warmth at times from the film.  


9/14/10 I watched Luchino Visconti's Ossessione.  I was blown away. It seemed like such an influence on Godard's Breathless and the way that he wanted his film to look and sound.  And I found it so much more satisfying than either American version I've seen of the same story. Visconti seems incredibly inspired, and his film is full of many wonderful details.  


2/3/11 I watched Yasujiro Ozu's There Was a Father.  Ozu is without a doubt my favorite directorial discovery of the last year.  His movies tell us so much about ourselves, and when it comes to showing us aging and family, I'm not sure Ozu has a rival.  I particularly like his bold, editing style in this one.  He jumps ahead between scenes, always knowing that we'll eventually catch up.  I'm not a huge fan of the actor playing the older son in this one, but all in all, another wonderful experience in the world of Ozu.    

2/11/18 I watched Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be.  Another Lubitsch that I don't think is up there with Shop  or Cluny but it is fun a good amout of time.

1940: The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)

1940: The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
The themes that probably affect me the most in film are loyalty, friendship, and some kind of unrequited love (even if  it might change at some point during the course of the movie).  Of all the films about unrequited love, this is at the very top of my list, along with Letter from an Unknown Woman, Holiday, Gertrud, and Splendor in the Grass. Like those other movies, this one pains me and moves me at the same time.  It's not during horror movies that I want to talk to the characters on screen, it's during this type of film.  I just want to save them from any more heartbreak.  

This is another desert island film for me.  I sold furniture for four years so the retail aspect hits especially close to home.  And the romance connects with me as much as anything that's ever been put on film.   

Other contenders for 1940: I have a few major gaps this year, too. Probably the biggest is the fact that I've never seen John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath.  Other films I still need to see from this year are Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm, Disney's Fantasia and Pinocchio (I've seen the latter, but it's been thirty plus years so it's really like I've never seen it), Preston Sturges' Christmas in July and The Great McGinty, Ludwig Berger's The Thief of Bagdad, and John Ford's The Long Voyage Home.  At some point, I'll need to revisit Alfred Hitchcock's two entries from this year, Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca.  I enjoyed them both upon first viewing, but neither after that viewing would contend for my top pick.  The only real contender this year would be Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday.  It's a film I really love, and one where I find so much of it totally brilliant -- Grant, Russell, the dialogue, and everyone's timing, to name but a few things. I finally though gave the year to the Lubitsch as it affects me as one of the most romantic films I've ever seen.  

8/9/10 I watched Preston Struges' The Great McGinty.  It has an uncharacteristic tone for Sturges, somewhat somber, somewhat melancholic, and not as manic as some of his other work.  It also boasts another one of his incredibly abrupt and offbeat endings.  I enjoyed it although not near as much as some of his later work.  

8/13/10 I watched John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath.  Ford's incredible eye is more obvious than ever.  But I continue to struggle a little with some of the hokum and sentimentality in his work.  A well-told, certainly well-observed film, but not always fully felt for me.  

8/18/10 I watched Preston Sturges' Christmas in July.  I can't say I necessarily enjoyed it, that it's that much fun.  But it certainly is incisive and has a lot to say about success, class, and the nature of perception. Sturges' unique absurdist perspective and love for wacky sounding proper names are on great display.  And of course, so is his talent.

8/19/10 I watched Disney's Pinocchio.  It's amazing how dark the film is at times.  I'm thinking particularly of the donkey transformation.  But there's great feeling in this one, and I really felt it a significant step from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  A wonderful Disney film, full of imagination and warmth.  

8/20/10 I watched John Ford's The Long Voyage Home.  I'm still somewhat new to Ford's work.  I've probably seen less than ten of his films.  But I'm starting to see more and more clearly the reason for his huge reputation.  There is a depthfulness and heavy melancholy to some of his work that gives it the kind of heft I've experienced with some Ozu, Mizoguchi, Bresson, and Dreyer.  Toland does some extraordinary things here, there are four or five completely gut-wrenching scenes, and there's a realism to a couple of the action set pieces that is absolutely masterful.  A very strong work for me.  

9/2/10 I watched Ludwid Berger's The Thief of Bagdad.  It's not totally my type of movie.  But for what it is, flights of fantasy and Technicolor deliciousness, it's extremely well done.  Has a little The Goonies and a little Clash of the Titans.  

3/15/11 I watched William Wyler's The Letter.  Exotic melodrama with Wyler keeping you guessing much of the time.  One of Bette Davis' strongest performances, and as close to a noir as I've seen from Wyler. Not excellent but some pretty fine work.  

2/25/13 I watched Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm.  An extremely well-made film that makes you think perhaps more than it makes you feel.  But it is frightening and communicates the horrors of fascism as well as anything I have ever seen.  Borzage's film seems like it might have been one of the main things Tarantino saw as he put Inglourious Basterds together.  Featuring some terrific set pieces, Borzage builds suspense by working through the characters rather than through music or any other cinematic manipulation.  Borzage who was known for his melodrama impresses here with an extraordinary sense of restraint.

7/27/14 I watched Michael Powell's Contraband.  Reminiscent of several Hitch films during this period, light, chaotic, "chase movies" for lack of a better term, Powell makes it entertaining enough without ever really becoming memorable.  That is, all but the opening shot which seems to introduce us to a different type of entry into a work, a silent single shot of the main character before titles before anything.  

1/13/18 I watched Edward F. Cline and Ralph Ceder's The Bank Dick.  Much of it is extremely funny, and really everything up until the final act whirls and whizzes to great effect out of the off-kilter Fields mind.  But it slows down once the final car chase begins and never quite regains the height of its initial promise.  

11/23/21 I watched Mitchell Leisen's Remember the Night.  The first of what I believe were three films that Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray made together, all of which are excellent.  Preston Sturges wrote the script for this one.  Leisen impresses with the amount of emotional depth he is able to create, producing greater feeling by repeatedly choosing complex character moments over entertaining turns of plot.  He shows such restraint, and willingness to defy typical Hollywood narratives, that by the end he is able to deliver a final moment of Bressonian gravity and weight.   

1932: La Nuit du Carrefour (Jean Renoir)

1932: La Nuit du Carrefour (Jean Renoir)

I have only seen this once, and it was fifteen years ago.  But it struck me at the time and has stayed with me ever since as perhaps the most atmospheric noir film I've ever seen.  I don't mean to frustrate with this choice, as I know most people haven't seen it.  I hope though that people will seek it out and that eventually as the years pass it will no longer be one of these undiscovered Renoir gems.  

The movie's an adaptation of a book by famed Belgian crime novelist, Georges Simenon.  I remember the story not making too much sense, but I don't think it's Simenon's fault.  There are stories about one reel from the movie being definitively lost.

The movie is visually very dark (maybe the darkest I've ever seen), opaque, foggy, and almost dream-like.  If you like your noirs less plot-driven than sensory-driven, I can't think of a more effective film.  

Other contenders for 1932: Let me start by saying I've only seen Trouble in Paradise once, and for one reason or another, it did not impact me.  That said, I have already put it on my queue and plan to revisit it very soon.  As a huge fan of The Shop Around the Corner and of Lubitsch in general, it's very possible that I took it in on an off day. Like every other year, I definitely have gaps from 1932.  They are: Tod Browning's Freaks, Raoul Walsh's Me and My Gal, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr, James Whale's The Old Dark House, Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight, Yasujiro Ozu's I Was Born, But..., Alfred Hitchcock's Rich and Strange, Howard Hawks' The Crowd Roars, Paul Fejos' Marie, a Hungarian Legend, Howard Hawks' Tiger Shark, Ernst Lubitsch's The Man I Killed, James Parrott's The Music Box, Irving Pichel and Ernest Schoedsack's The Most Dangerous Game, and Norman McLeod's Horse Feathers.  Of the films I have seen, I like Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct, although it did not affect me near as much as L'atalante.  I found Ernst Lubitsch's One Hour With You quite entertaining and charming, but I can't remember it for much more than that.  Scarface, the Shame of the Nation is a film I really admire, but emotionally it doesn't affect near the way that some of the later Hawks' films do.  Probably my closest runner-up would be Luis Bunuel's Land Without Bread.  I remember it as being a very powerful and disturbing film, and it still somewhat haunts me, more than fifteen years after I saw it.  But, ultimately, I have to make this little seen Renoir film my top choice.  I remember it as one of the moodiest and atmospheric of any film I've ever seen.    


3/13/10 I re-watched Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise.  Although it wouldn't contend for my top spot, I certainly had a much better experience with it this time around.  There's an effervescence in the air that Lubitsch is able to maintain with the writing, acting, and spirited camera movements.  I find myself moved much more by his later The Shop Around the Corner, but this is certainly one of my favorite films I've seen by him.  


4/17/10 I watched Ernst Lubitsch's One Hour with You.  Although I liked it more than Monte Carlo and The Love Parade, it wouldn't contend for my top spot.  It's the earliest film, however, that I've seen where actors directly address the audience.  May have been a major influence on some of Belmondo's actions in Godard's Pierrot Le Fou.  A very playful, fun movie.  


4/22/10 I watched Josef von Sternberg's Blonde Venus.  It felt somewhat patchy and wouldn't contend for my top spot, but it did have some great moments.  I particularly liked the moment right after Dietrich lets Johnny leave on the train with Herbert Marshall. Dietrich's face at this point is devastating.  Overall, the film is complex, runs through a deep gamut of emotions, and features some beautiful tracking shots that remind me of Morocco.


4/30/10 I watched Tod Browning's Freaks.  It's an incredible film, no doubt, and unlike anything I've ever seen.  "Gooble gobble.  One of us. We accept her" is simply one of the more incredible and powerful moments I've seen in a very long time.  Has to be one of David Lynch's favorites.  


5/12/10 I watched Norman McLeod's Horse Feathers.  This was only my second ever experience with a Marx Brothers film, and I did struggle a little with it.  However, occasionally I will admit to finding a few of the lines pretty witty.  


5/14/10 I watched Frank Borzage's A Farewell to Arms.  Some nice moments, but I never fully felt Catherine and Frederic's relationship. But full of Borzage's wonderful expressionism and a painful tale of forbidden love.


5/16/10 I watched Irving Pichel and Ernest Schoedsack's The Most Dangerous Game.  I liked how tight the film was, and the execution is quite clean and effective.  A very original movie and pretty entertaining for its time.  


5/19/10 I watched James Whale's The Old Dark House.  There's a certain lunacy to it all, and I particularly liked the scenes when Saul emerges from his room.  A little slow at times for me, but it feels like an important (creates and solidifies certain archetypes), early genre film.


5/20/10 I watched Yasujiro Ozu's I Was Born, But...  Wow, what deep emotions Ozu is able to explore.  Particularly the idea of young kids having to come to terms with their father's rank in society.  Ozu goes deep, takes it slow, but explores characters and themes that are incredibly universal and real.  


5/23/10 I watched Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight.  It's definitely an interesting film, much different at times formally than the Lubitsch collaborations with Chevalier and MacDonald.  Some real heart and full of the playfulness that I would later associate with Godard's early work.  


5/29/10 I watched Mervyn LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. A little preachy and heavy-handed, perhaps, at times.  But admirable in how uncompromising it is.  The scenes on the chain gang are powerful, and Muni turns in an extremely strong performance.  


6/2/10 I watched Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr.  Granted vampire movies are not really my thing, but I'm a HUGE fan of Dreyer's work. But this one, whether it's because much of the original negative was lost or some other explanation altogether, left me cold and pretty uninterested.  All that said, some impressive visuals at times and Dreyer certainly in a very inventive space.


7/5/10 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Rich and Strange.  A very unconventional film from Hitch and perhaps the one I like the least. The shipwreck is a nice moment, but otherwise I found it pretty uninspired and unengaging.  

11/18/12 I watched Howard Hawks' The Crowd Roars.  An early Hawks film I have been wanting to see for the longest time, I was able to catch up with it finally on TCM.  Already in 1932, Hawks proves himself unusually adept at filming action, and there is a scene or two I would rank with the very greatest of any ever filmed by Hawks.  The long sequence that begins with Cagney arriving at Indianapolis and ends with him at the diner illustrates the unique greatness Hawks possessed as storyteller.  With just simple, direct, and fluid brush strokes, Hawks was able to arrive at a truth - profound, very  human, and with all that was immaterial left behind.  

11/18/12 I watched Victor Fleming's Red Dust.  Some people prefer this version over Ford's Mogambo.  The pre-code timing does allow it to show a little more of its sexy subject matter.  But Gardner and Kelly in the latter version bring a beauty that for me dwarfs Astor and Harlow. Of course Ford at the helm also works in its favor.   

9/8/13 I watched Edward Sedgwick's The Passionate Plumber.  There must be a story behind this one, something I am missing because what's left on screen for now is among my least favorite outings from a great director-actor team.  It all seems a mess with maybe one or two moderately enjoyable gags. 

12/14/13 I watched George Cukor's What Price Hollywood?  Interesting as an early Cukor pic and opportunity to see a first run at the A Star Is Born story.  Bennett has some impressive scenes, and she has a look of real style and beauty.  I much prefer though the Wellman and Cukor later versions. 

1/4/14 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Number Seventeen.  An early working out of The 39 Steps, perhaps, and as a primer has some historical interest but as a film it is rough and hard to follow.  I admire the scope of the final major set piece but the rest left me distant and unmoved.  

1/3/18 I watched Leslie Pearce's The Dentist.  Fields is somewhat funny in this underwhelming short in which he stars.  

1/7/18 I watched Edward F. Cline's Million Dollar Legs.  As a precursor to the outlandish sensibility that Preston Strurges would later brand, this WC Fields feature is worth a look.  Being pre-code works in its favor and there are a number of memorable sight gags including the sped-up runner or the scan of different buttons Fields has at his disposal inside his Klopstokia home.

5/28/18 I watched Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?  The first time I am back to working my way through Ozu in chronological order since March of 2017.

It is one of his films I have never heard about and it comes immediately after one of his more famous works, I Was Born, But....  Like its predecessor, what is noticeable is Ozu's development into a very complex emotional filmmaker.  The final fifteen or so minutes, in particular, show Ozu's range as an unflinchingly brutal realist and a deeply searching humanist.  In fact, I cannot recall a more emotionally uncompromising scene to date in Ozu's cinema than Tetsuo and Saiki's final encounter. 

Some formal elements that I noticed are Ozu's reliance on tatami shots but not entirely, some tracking shots and a predominance of shorter takes compared to where his cinema would eventually end up in the latter part of his career.  It would take a second viewing for me to confirm, but I think I noticed Ozu shifting to longer takes during a couple of the more emotionally important moments. 

A few other small observations.  Again, there is a scene that features an American film poster which was surprising to me, as I thought by this point in his career that Ozu had let go of any Western influence on his work.  There were also a couple of exterior shots as Tetsuo rode in a car.  I cannot recall a previous shot of this type in Ozu's cinema.  And, like I Was Born, But..., there is an underlying playfulness and almost silliness that exists that seems to disappear from most of Ozu's later work.

Interesting to note that it would not be until 1936 that Ozu would make his first talkie, possibly the latest of all adopters.  Also, of note, it dawned on me that unlike Mizoguchi I am not sure Ozu ever made a film that was period or not set in present day.


For films about the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood or even for films about the meaning of friendship, Where Now Are the Dreams Of Youth? deserves to be a part of the discussion.

9/12/19 I rewatched Norman Z. McLeod's Horse Feathers.  At about fifteen minutes in or so, the slapstick starts in full gear and McLeod does a tremendous job of maintaining its breakneck pace for nearly the next 75 minutes.  

5/30/20 I watched Howard Hawks' Tiger Shark.  A minor yet very interesting early Hawks film.  What impressed me the most was the time Hawks allows for capturing the details of the fishing industry at the time.  I also admired the amount of darkness Hawks permitted to color certain scenes and moments.

12/9/20 I watched Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express.  The film is hard to pinpoint.  It keeps you on your toes, never quite clear whether it is happy or tragic, deep or superficial, art or entertainment.  It is not easy to enter emotionally either but it is always interesting to look at and listen to.  I have had far easier times with other von Sternberg works like Morocco or The Blue Angel.  

5/15/21 I watched Raoul Walsh's Me and My Gal.  Tracy and Bennett are excellent, as are the few moments that hint at what American cinema would have looked like in the late thirties had the Hays Code never happened.  But the character work never went as deep or became as affecting as in my favorite work by Walsh such as Gentleman Jim and The Strawberry Blonde.