Lucky Night (1939)

Lucky Night starts off as a great screwball comedy. Then just as it starts to get really funny and you think more great scenes are to come it becomes serious and the dialogue becomes a bit confusing.

            Cora Jordan (Myrna Loy) is a wealthy young woman who can have anyone and anything she wants but is very bored with her life. A guy named Joe she has been seeing tries hard to win her love but she just does not love him. After Joe leaves her father asks if she is happy because he seems to think she wants to find love. But she says she wants more than love she wants to do something on her own. Her father suggests moving out and getting a job. Cora likes this idea and tells her father she is doing everything by herself and heads off to the city to look for a job.

            Unfortunately this takes place in 1939 when the Depression was still in full force and jobs are scarce. Every employment agency has turned Cora down. In one office she meets a young man who is in the same boat as her. At the end of the day Cora meets the man again in the park when she shares a bench with him. His name is Bill Overton (Robert Taylor) and they get to talking. They both have nowhere to go and nothing to eat. Bill starts to ask people is they have fifty cents so they can get something to eat. A police officer comes over and he is the nice man to give them money for food because he asks if they are married and Cora says they are engaged.

            When Bill goes to pay for the food he realizes that he must have dropped the money in the street. He has Cora take a quarter the man next to them left and tells her to play the slot machine. She plays it and hits the pay day! Bill takes Cora out on the town gambling that night and they win pretty big both in money and a new car. While celebrating their fantastic night they get drunk and want to get married.

            The next morning they wake up in a hotel room unable to remember how they wound up there. All they can remember last is they were eating dinner at a restaurant. When they look at the paper they see that they got married the night before. They are both upset especially Cora because up to this point she had always been responsible. Cora and Bill go to see her father who is very upset with his daughter. Bill stands up for them both and Cora decides to make a go of the marriage. After they leave Bill goes to a paint store that is looking for help and by being a smooth talker gets himself a job as a paint salesman.

            The marriage goes alright for a while. Bill wants to constantly have a good time and spend money but Cora is practical and does all the budgeting. Over time their differences create some strain on them both.

            Luck does come back to Bill and Cora in the end when they realize they could not live without each other.

            Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor were adorable together. They looked so good together. Loy and Taylor were just so talented they were great at doing comedy or drama which definitely came in handy for them. My favorite scene was after Bill and Cora get married, they are talking about something and she kicks him in the shins and he retaliates by slapping her behind, she chases after him and he runs and locks himself in the bathroom. Taylor looked like a little boy he was so cute. The whole scene was just nice and light. Myrna Loy had a fabulous scene when Cora and Bill were gambling. For some reason I cannot remember Bill has his money taken away from him in a gambling house. A guy pushes Bill then Cora gives him a good smack in the face knocking the guy to the ground! They literally get thrown out of the room and catch their hats they lost. Also their drunk scene was hysterical both Taylor and Loy played great drunks haha.

 

            As I said at the beginning Lucky Night starts off like a screwball comedy and then turns serious when the marriage and the relationship hits reality. Towards the end the dialogue gets really confusing, a few times I had no idea what the hell was going on it just did not make any sense. But for the most part the film is entertaining and has some really nice moments. Sit through Lucky Night only if you are a fan of either Myrna Loy or Robert Taylor. 

The Descendants (2011)

"I don't want my daughters growing up entitled and spoiled. And I agree with my father: you give your children enough money to do something but not enough to do nothing".

            I did not really have a desire to see The Descendents when it was released in theaters. But after it won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay I figured I would give it a shot. I did not go into this film with any expectations which helped because they were neither let down nor met.

            Matt King (George Clooney) is dealing with his comatose wife, Elizabeth, who has been in the hospital for a few weeks. She is not getting better but he is hopeful. Matt is more hopeful that she wakes up because he has two daughters that he knows barely anything about since his wife mostly took care of them. Scottie is ten and finding her own identity. She is also acting out since her mom is in the hospital and getting into trouble. Alexandra is away at college but once Matt finds out that his wife is going to die he goes and gets her. When he and Scottie get Alexandra she is playing golf outside in the middle of the night completely drunk.

            The next day Alexandra tells Matt that Elizabeth was cheating on him. So now on top of the news that she is going to die Matt now has to deal with the fact that she was cheating on him. When he takes the girls to the hospital Matt goes in first and yells at her then Alexandra has her turn and yells at her as well.

            Now Matt is on the hunt to the find the man Elizabeth cheated with. When he finds the guy it turns out that he is associated with a deal Matt and his family are working on to sell land that has been in their family for over one hundred years.

            To me this pretty much sums up the story of The Descendents. It is about reconnecting with family and holding on to strong family bonds… well that is my take.

            The whole run of the film I was puzzled as to how the screenplay won. I did not think it was anything special at all.

            The cast was really good though. George Clooney was excellent. I am not a fan of Shailene Woodley but I thought she was great. Matthew Lillard is in this movie. Yeah, remember him as the annoying self-centered guy She’s All That and Shaggy from Scooby Doo? I thought it was so random I have not seen this guy in a movie since Scooby Doo. Great casting with Judy Greer, Mary Birdsong, and Beau Bridges in small parts.

            The Descendents was alright. I was not expecting anything great and it was not. It felt like there was a lot missing. Even though the cast did some great acting at times its felt like they were all holding back. Maybe it was just the way the characters were written they all just felt really held back. The holding back took away from the movie and made it seem slow and dull.

 

Silent Sundays: Way Down East (1920)

Way Down East is a very long silent melodrama. Now when the word melodrama is associated with a film today that usually means it is way too overdramatic and silly. There are some scenes that are overdramatic but are acted phenomenally by Lillian Gish.

            Anna Moore (Gish) is a poor country girl who goes to live with some rich relatives in the city. Her cousins do not like her very much because she is very pretty and they try to hide her especially from a rich young man named Lennox Sanderson. Lennox “Has three specialities—ladies—Ladies – and LADIES.” Unfortunately all the cousins’ hiding of Anna goes in vain when Lennox lays on her. He sees her as innocent and naïve- perfect for his next conquest.

            Anna believes that Lennox really loves her when he proposes to marry her. He sets up a fake wedding and she is not to tell anyone about it. A while later she tells him that she is having a baby and he tells her about the wedding. Lennox also says that he will give her money to go away. Anna does eventually go away when her mother dies to a small town. In the town she has her baby but the baby gets sick and dies. The landlady kicks Anna out because she does not have a husband.

            Anna wanders to a small town where gets a job with a man named Squire Bartlett. He thinks Anna is a loose woman because she just wandered into the town. Bartlett’s son David falls in love with Anna but she will not let him fall for her because of what happened to her and she does not want his reputation ruined by being with her. Also it just so happens that Lennox has a house nearby. When they see each other for the first time he tells her to leave but she will not.

            The former landlady comes into town. She sees Anna and unfortunately repeats her story to the town gossip. The gossip goes back to Squire Bartlett and tells him the whole story. He wants to kick Anna out that night but his wife tells him to get the truth first. He does go the next day to the landlady and kicks Anna out that night. Before she goes she says yes what happened to her is true but before she goes she gives Lennox away as the perpetrator. David comes back just as this event happens. At first he is upset but when Anna gives up Lennox he runs over to fight the man. Anna leaves during a bad snow storm and loses her way. David goes to look for her.

            When David finds Anna she has collapsed on a piece of ice floating down river towards a fall. In a thrilling and suspenseful conclusion David saves Anna and she is forgiven by his father and the community.

            Lillian Gish was phenomenal. That is the only way to describe her in this film. In the beginning you want her to have a fun life and meet people to get out of her country ways; when she meets Lennox you know his intentions are wrong so you want her to realize that before it is too late; when she gets in trouble you feel terrible and know things are not going to be easy for her; when her baby dies you want to cry with her; when the town finds out her secret you want to save her. Gish’s acting for the silent era is perfect she does not do histrionic gestures she reacts just as a normal person would have reacted (ok maybe not after all this is a movie). I could not get over how adorable her face was. She was not pretty or gorgeous she was adorable but with this great expressive eyes. Like her good friend Mary Pickford she expressed so much with just her eyes. I had seen Gish before in Night of the Hunter when she was older and obviously it was not a silent film. It was great to finally see her in a silent film.

            Richard Barthelmess was great as David. David was such a nice character. Barthelmess was a good actor too he did not overact.

            This was the first time I have ever seen a DW Griffith film. I fully understand why the man was ahead of his time and a complete genius. His shots were beautiful especially the end on the ice floats.

            My favorite scenes were the most heartbreaking ones: as after the doctor tells Anna her baby is very sick someone mentions that he is not baptized but a priest cannot get to him until morning. Anna knows the baby is not going to make it through the night so she looks in the Bible and baptizes him herself. I cannot even explain the look of sadness on her face as she does this just thinking about it makes me want to cry a little. The other scene is when she is living in the village and she sees a little baby. She bends down taking the baby’s hand and kissing it as the baby plays with her scarf. Again it is the look of sadness on her face as she thinks of her own baby.

            Looking at this film with modern eyes can be very frustrating. Today if a woman gets pregnant and she is not married there is no social stigma. Some people who are traditional may think so but she does not have to wear a scarlet letter. Way Down East was made in 1920 when this topic was outrageously taboo in real life and a woman did carry a social stigma especially with the religious. I felt terrible for Anna and so angry at the people who looked down upon and kicked her out ESPECIALLY because the whole situation was not her fault. Damn Lennox tricked her!! There is a scene towards the end when Lennox says something about people finding out about her and she says the same thing to him but he responds that it is different for him because he is a man. Dear God I could have punched my computer screen! But that kind of think does still hold a bit true men can go out with so many girls and not be called anything but a woman who sleeps with however many guys and she is labeled a whore.

            Way Down East is a great film. The one and only complaint that I have about it is that it is way too long. At two hours and twenty-five minutes it could have been cut down an hour. There are so many subplots that at times they take away from the main story. I really did not care if this one guy was chasing down the town gossip or if some people were standing around the post office in the middle of the winter or about a dance. Besides the length the story is great and the characters are very good. The performance by the entire cast was fantastic. Way Down East is considered one of the greatest silent films and should be seen at least once by film buffs. 

Death Defying Acts (2007)

Death Defying Acts is a movie I caught a part of on TV one day. It did not look bad especially because it involved Houdini and the guy is pretty interesting to learn about. I knew of course without having seen the whole thing that the movie was mostly fictitious but, hey, movies like these are based on some kind of truths. And how could I pass up an opportunity to see two of the hottest people in Hollywood in the lead roles Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta- Jones? I could not so I watched it and found that the film felt short and was a bit boring.

            Famous magician Harry Houdini (Pearce) is on a tour of Britain. For the past few years he has been trying to conduct a scientific experiment to see if the supernatural does really exist and is not fake. He sends out a newsreel letting everyone know that he will be holding auditions of sorts to see if anyone is the real deal. An entertainer at a local theater named Mary McGarvie (Zeta-Jones) has an act with her daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan) where she claims she can make contact with the dead. What they really do is scope out people, Benji sometimes steals a little something off their person, and Mary goes to the library to check out the papers with details of the dead person. Mary and Benjo hear about Houdini’s challenge and they decide to go for it even though they know they are not the real deal.

            Mary pretends to be a maid in the hotel the magician is staying in to get into his room to find out some information about him. Benjo goes to the theater to his dressing but she is caught. Houdini talks to her and gives her tickets to the show. A few days later Mary “auditions” for Houdini and is assigned the challenge he has set. He mostly hires her because of the close resemblance to his mother with whom he is trying to contact since he was very close to her.

   

            The magician and the fake psychic get closer and closer and they lose sight of what they have really come together to do. Benji is the one who wants to stay on target with the whole thing and Houdini’s manager suspects they are phonies. Anyway, Houdini and Mary have an affair and then he leaves.

            Not really to brag about. There is only one of the magician’s tricks that are shown and it was the one where he unlocks himself from a water tank.

            Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta- Jones were really got together I would love to see them in another film together. I think they looked absolutely fabulous in the 1920s style clothing especially Zeta- Jones she looked gorgeous in several scenes. 

            Death Defying Acts is an alright movie, I was not terribly impressed. In several reviews I have read the reviewers compare this movie to The Prestige and The Illusionist. I hate to do that because the movies are all so different and I think Death Defying Acts was more about the man and a love story than it was about the magician’s magic tricks while the other two were more about the magic. I think this where the film falls flat and is boring because it is more of a love story. Only sit through the movie if you like Guy Pearce and/or Catherine Zeta- Jones

Hugo (2011)

“I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason.” 

            Since Hugo came out I have been reading more about Martin Scorsese. Sure the guy has been around for a long time but now with Hugo out Scorsese has been getting more attention than he usually does. And I am paying more attention to him now since I really like movies. I admire the man for his love of cinema and film history. My brother saw Hugo in the movies when it was released and since then he has been saying how incredible the movie was. He bought it last week and from beginning to end I adored the movie. When the movie was over I was so happy to have seen such love and care go into making a film about a man who was so much a part of film history.

            Hugo Cabret lives in the French train station Montparnasse. He fixes the station’s clocks and makes sure they run on time. He did not always live there. His father died in a fire in the museum he worked at and his mother had died when he was much younger. He was sent to live with his uncle in the train station where the uncle worked as the clock fixer. Before living with his uncle, Hugo’s father used to have a clock shop. One day he found an automaton in the museum and the two spent evenings trying to make the automaton work. Hugo still works on the automaton by stealing parts from a toy shop in the station.

            One day Hugo goes to steal some parts from a windup when he sees the owner has fallen asleep. The man (Ben Kingsley) catches Hugo before he can snatch the toy and run away. The man tells Hugo to empty his pockets and one of the things in his pocket his is father’s notebook with drawings of the automaton. The man has a look of shock on his face and asks where he found the robot. Hugo tells him and the man says that he is to work off stealing by working for him in the shop.

            Hugo sees that the man knows a young girl and thinks she is his daughter. He meets the girl named Isabelle (Chloe Grace Mortez). Isabelle tells him that she is not the man’s daughter but she calls him Papa Georges. Hugo asks her to get his notebook back for him but she cannot Georges has put it somewhere she cannot find it and also that it caused Georges and his wife Jean a great deal of stress.

            Hugo begins to trust Isabelle since she is very nice to him. He sees that she has a key with the end of it in the shape of a heart. The automaton has a keyhole in that shape. He wound the automaton once but it did not work because he did not have the key. He brings Isabelle to his living quarters to see try the key. It works and the automaton begins to write something. It stops but when it starts again and finishes it has drawn a picture of the moon with a rocket in its eye and the signature of Georges Méliès in the corner.

            The picture is the beginning of marvelous things and heartbreaking memories.

            As I said at the beginning I loved Hugo. The story is so interesting the way it unfolds. I really liked how the story used Georges Melies who if you do not know was one of the French pioneers of filmmaking in the early 1900s. He used camera tricks to bring to life wonderful stories. His most famous film is Le Voyage dans la Lune (Voyage to the Moon).  Everyone has seen the part of Le Voyage when the rocket hits the moon in the eye it is one of the most famous film clips ever. Melies’s films were rediscovered in 1931 and his reputation restored to glory.

            The story comes from a book entitled The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Yes, he is related to David O). Selznick wrote such an entertaining and heartfelt story. You can tell he cares for his subject which was perfect for Scorsese to make a movie out of because he has a great passion for film and its history.

            The blue and gold tones in the film are fantastic. If I had to assign a color or colors to Paris it would be blue and gold: blue because it is a city and I think of cities as cold places and gold because it is the City of Light.

            The time period that Méliès was rediscovered could not have been more perfect. Paris in the 1920s and 1930s is so interesting to learn about and the city was never more alive and flowing than in these times.

            Hugo is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is entertaining and beautiful from the moment it starts. I had a wonderful time seeing and hearing old film references as well as art references to the surrealists with their magazine Vu. The cast is large and incredibly well put together everyone is wonderful in their parts. Hugo is in line with films like The Artist and Midnight in Paris that keeps my faith in Hollywood producing high class and truly original films.

            In an interview, Scorsese comments on why it is important to look to classic films to absolute perfection:

“I’m often asked by younger filmmakers, why do I need to look at old movies; I’ve made a number of pictures in the past twenty years. And the response I find that I have to give them is that I still consider myself a student. The more pictures I’ve made in the past twenty years the more I realize I really don’t know. And I’m always looking for something to, something or someone that I could learn from. I tell them, I tell the younger filmmakers and the young students that I do it like painters used to do, or painters do: study the old masters, enrich your palette, expand your canvas. There’s always so much more to learn.”

           

            As a classic film admirer and a lover of the art of filmmaking I am so happy and grateful for directors like Martin Scorsese and Michel Hazanavicious for making quality films and shedding light on film history for younger generations to see and hopefully become interested in. 

To Each His Own (1946)

I am not one to really cry when I watch a movie. I love it when people say “this one is a tear jerker have the tissues handy” because I never need them usually I am a nasty SOB with a heart of stone and I laugh. The only film I can watch over and over again knowing what happens at the end and still get a little teary is The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I do not know why but that ending gets me every time. I hate crying in films I always feel like such a girl. I hate getting emotional especially at a movie but then I have to stop and think that is the point of films you are supposed to feel the emotional impact. Well Olivia de Havilland definitely gives your emotional side a good punch in To Each His Own.

            The film begins on New Year’s Eve in London during World War II. Jody Norris (de Havilland) is on fire patrol with a man named Lord Desham. Neither really like one another but after Desham falls and Jody saves him they go out for some tea. They realize that they have a lot in common especially the loss of loved ones during World War I. A call comes in for Jody and leaves in a hurry to get to the train station. At the station she bumps into a young girl who tells her she has no idea what it is like being in love with a fighter pilot. What the girl said to Jody makes her think about her own life and once being in love with a fighter pilot.

            Jody lived in a small town in Upstate New York with her father where she worked with him in a drug store. She and the whole town are excited hearing the buzz of a fighter flying through their town on a tour. Jody dreams of adventure in her life which makes the buzz sounds all the more exciting. The plane lands in a golf course and she is one of the people to see the handsome pilot named Bat Cosgrove (John Lund). The poor pilot is mobbed by a crowd of people before he even steps out of the plane.

            Jody is upset she did not get to meet the pilot in person at the golf course but through a twist of fate she gets her chance. The poor guy has his eye scratched by a branch and needs some medicine for it. Father has him hiding out in the back of his store where no one can find him and locks the shop up. From this point on Jody is pretty much in love with Cosgrove and his brokenness of being a pilot which he compares to being a drunk. He brings her up in his plane where he pretends to run out of gas to show off but once Jody says she loves him he gets nervous because he loves her too.

            A while later Jody finds out she is pregnant with Cosgrove’s baby. Even though she writes to him she does not want to keep it until she finds out that Cosgrove has died on a mission. She has the baby in the city where no one knows her but has to figure out how she will get the baby home and keep him without giving away the truth. Her plan is to leave the baby on the doorstep of a woman who has so many kids they will not want to keep the baby and she will go and say she will take it. The plan works until she goes to the store to get baby supplies and the lady tells Jody the rich couple of the town has lost their baby and they have taken him. Jody is beyond upset but she cannot give away her secret without being shamed. Over time she becomes her son’s nanny.

            She watches her son, who has been named Gregory, grow up. Gregory’s father Alex was very much in love with Jody and still is. He knows her secret and gives her pictures of the baby to keep in a scrapbook. Sometime later Jody’s father dies and sells his shop. She wants to go to the city to work with another of her admirers Mac Tildon but she wants to take Greg with her. Alex’s wife knows that Jody is Greg’s real mother but she refuses to give the baby up because Alex still thinks about Jody and does not love her the way he should. She feels they will never have other children.

            In the city Jody starts her own cosmetics company with Mac and makes a fortune. With this fortune she even gets Greg back for a little while but he misses the mother and father he has grown up with for the four years of his life. When Greg goes back Jody goes to London to work on the company’s new factory there and does not return to the United States.

            At the train station on New Year’s Eve Greg has just returned. She wants nothing but to spoil him and have him all to herself but she does not get that. Greg has gotten himself engaged and wants to marry the girl right away but English law prohibits quick weddings. Lord Desham comes to her aid after she tells him everything by pulling some strings. Gregory finally realizes that Jody is his real mother which is all she ever wanted.

            So I cried a bit when Jody lost her baby and it is all because Olivia de Havilland is such a fantastic actress. I cannot even describe the sadness and heartache on her face when she found out her baby had gone to someone else. My heart ached for her. De Havilland won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in this film and completely deserved it without question. This film and the award came after de Havilland won her famous court case against Warner Bros. where she sued them to get out of her contract. She was a freelance actress at this point and Paramount offered her the role. How awesome this must have felt for her to win after her struggles with Warner Bros. This is hands down one of her best roles and one that should be seen. I love Olivia de Havilland and the more I see of her the more I adore her and after this film I can now completely see why she won and why she is one of the greatest actresses ever. She had such a range compared to many actresses of her era of filmmaking and To Each His Own fully demonstrates it.

            The rest of the cast was perfect. John Lund as Cosgrove made his film debut. He was very handsome and you can totally see why Jody was attracted to him. Ronald Culver as Lord Desham was such a gentleman I liked the character very much. He softened Jody by the end, he just wanted to reach out and help her and he did perfectly.

          Edith Head designed the costumes for Olivia de Havilland. This woman was nothing short of brilliant. Even the clothes that were supposed to be from the World War I era were stunning and had her gorgeous touch. Her clothes for de Havilland in the 1920s were so beautiful. 

            To Each His Own could be seen as a heavy 1940s melodrama. But if you really look deep into it the story is so good and so touching. Looking at the story with a modern view can be irritating especially because of the social stigma of being an unwed mother in the early 1900s which went well into the late 1950s early 1960s. I really liked the fact that the father did not condemn his daughter he still loved and cared for her and was behind her on bringing up the baby. The only thing he did was tell her not to let people know that the baby was really hers but he was not mad at her for what she did.

            To Each His Own is a great film from beginning to end. The story is beautiful and the acting by the entire cast is top notch. It is so touching that I am not ashamed to admit I got a little teary eyed.