As I mentioned, the purpose of this blog is to document and review the classic movies I've seen in 2020, but I'm going to give a special honourable mention to a movie I've seen several times, starring my favourite actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
It's a Wonderful Life aired over the holidays in select theatres, which meant I got to fulfill a dream and see one of my favourite old movies on the BIG SCREEN as it was meant to be seen. Long story short, I fell in love all over again.
Everyone knows It's a Wonderful Life is about George Bailey, played by the incomparable Jimmy Stewart, who I love and adore. George Bailey does not in fact have a wonderful life - or so he thinks - and debates jumping off a bridge to end it all - after all, Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) did point out to George that he was worth more dead than he was alive. That is until the angel Clarence - who still needs to earn his wings, comes down to earth and shows him what the world would be life if George Bailey had never been born.
Watching a movie in the movie theatre is entirely different than watching it in your living room. Besides swooning over seeing Jimmy Stewart on the big screen, I was able to focus on the story more, and understand George's plight more. I absorbed every word of dialogue and noticed parts in the movie I had never noticed before. George's pain was alive on the screen; his love for Mary (Donna Reed) - and Mary's love for him - was felt so strongly.
George in fact had a pretty typical life, I think. He had big dreams, and was going to see the world, and create things, and do what he wanted to do. However, the reality of life hit in him hard when he had to take over his father's duties at the building and loan - thus "trapping" him in a life he never wanted. But a life, he genuinely made the best of. What is not typical or George is his moral compass. He always chooses to take the right path, whether it's what he wants or not. He is completely unselfish which of course gets to him sometimes - and why wouldn't it?! The thing that finally puts him over the edge, isn't even his fault - but he lets it rest on his shoulders like he does everything in his world. It's no wonder he found himself on the bridge wondering what the hell went wrong.
It's well known that this movie didn't do so well at the box office when it was first released. Legend has it that due to a clerical error, the copyright to the move expired and TV stations during my day could air the movie without paying royalties. Which is how it became popular in today's world. But I have to wonder if the world in 1946 wasn't ready to see a down-and-out man - especially a down-and-out Jimmy Stewart, who himself was struggling after serving in WWII. Known as the sweet, good-guy, boy-next-door type, Stewart worked with director Frank Capra in You Can't Take it With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); a comedy and drama respectively, both co-starring Jean Arthur, and both amongst my favourite Jimmy Stewart movies.
Maybe in 1946 people didn't need a reminder of how tough, but also amazing, life can be. They knew it. They lived it. And they wanted to move on. But the world today needs this reminder, because frankly the world has gone to shit even without a world war. The world needs Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart to remind us to hold on to what and who love, and to hold on to what we know to be good and true and just. And to remind us that we are wanted, and needed, and loved. It's a message that often gets lost in a world full of negativity that is spread so much faster than it ever could in 1946, thanks to 24/7 social media and news platforms.
Basically I'm saying everyone really needs to see this movie.
I won't be reviewing a lot of Jimmy Stewart movies, as I've seen about 46 of his films, so really I've seen all I want see (I'm skipping most of his westerns from the '60s). But I tend to re-watch of few of my favourites, so perhaps I will post about them after all. And for the record, my favourite Jimmy Stewart movies (in chronological order - not order of most favorite) are:
You Can't Take it With You (1938)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Mortal Storm (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Harvey (1950)
Rear Window (1954)
Vertigo (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Friday, January 3, 2020
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Easy Living (1937)
I quietly rung in the New Year, and started my January 1st off with selecting a movie to watch. While you will find a lot of reviews of Film Noir style movies in the future, watching characters back-stab (literally and figuratively) each other just wasn't what I was feeling for the first morning of 2020. I needed something a little more light-hearted to start my day.
Easy Living is a screwball comedy, which is not a genre I tend to watch much of. I guarantee you, you'll never see a review here of a Marx brothers movie. However, there are a few actors and actresses that I love more than I dislike the genre, and Jean Arthur is definitely one of those actresses.
The premise of the movie is that a rich banker (Edward Arnold) throws one of his wife's fur coats of the roof and falls on the head of a woman (Jean Arthur), changing her life forever. The series of events which take Mary Smith from working at a boys magazine to nouveau riche are funny and fast-paced. I can forgive the predictability of the fall-down antics (hence, slapstick comedy) and the lack of communication as Louis of Hotel Louis rents the biggest hotel room to Mary for $7 a week simply because he thinks she is having an affair with "the man we will not mention" (no, heaven forbid we say names and clear up the confusion in 5 minutes) and she can boost his business. My, how times have changed!
But can we talk about this lavish hotel room for a second? Louis navigates Mary through a massive multi-room suite that includes three reception rooms, and a shell shaped bathtub that is taller than any person. Now, I understand that TV and movies have always over glamourized, and created a large-scale fantasy to represent reality (Yes, NBC, I'm talking about the large New York City apartment that young 20-somethings Rachel and Monica lived in; and the perfect 'beach curls' that Detective-turned-Sergeant-turned-Captain Oliva Benson manages every morning). But since in 1937, people only had the movies to fulfill their visual fantasy, I assume that the glamorized version of reality was even more exaggerated. But as an aside, if Myra Loy's and William Powell's apartment in the Thin Man movie series really exists, and really doesn't cost a million dollars, I want it.
While thoroughly enjoying Jean Arthur's sweet, hilarious, and wise-cracking innocent ways, I was surprised by how much I also enjoyed the talent of her co-star, Ray Milland, who plays the rich banker's son. I had previously only seen Milland in one other film - 1944's The Uninvited. While I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill-fest of that movie, it clearly did not allow Milland to show his true comedic talent. It was perhaps, the comedic talent of both stars that allowed the chemistry between them show so brilliantly on the screen - which was also an unexpected surprise for a slapstick comedy. From the moment they met in the cafeteria style restaurant, I was rooting for them. Through each bump, slip, miscommunication, and folly, I loved them both.
The final scenes in the movie in which the banker, played by Edward Arnold, is yelling his head off in his giant office (why do they always have to yell so much in old comedies?) grew a little thin for me, the quick-comedic pace of the movie never disappointed. The writing was smart and the delivery was even better - expect perhaps the part where I think technically Mary committed insider trading, but that's another discussion. The point is, unlike a Film Noir, you know they are going to live happily ever after - no matter what zany path they have to take to get there - and I was okay with that.
Easy Living is a screwball comedy, which is not a genre I tend to watch much of. I guarantee you, you'll never see a review here of a Marx brothers movie. However, there are a few actors and actresses that I love more than I dislike the genre, and Jean Arthur is definitely one of those actresses.
The premise of the movie is that a rich banker (Edward Arnold) throws one of his wife's fur coats of the roof and falls on the head of a woman (Jean Arthur), changing her life forever. The series of events which take Mary Smith from working at a boys magazine to nouveau riche are funny and fast-paced. I can forgive the predictability of the fall-down antics (hence, slapstick comedy) and the lack of communication as Louis of Hotel Louis rents the biggest hotel room to Mary for $7 a week simply because he thinks she is having an affair with "the man we will not mention" (no, heaven forbid we say names and clear up the confusion in 5 minutes) and she can boost his business. My, how times have changed!
But can we talk about this lavish hotel room for a second? Louis navigates Mary through a massive multi-room suite that includes three reception rooms, and a shell shaped bathtub that is taller than any person. Now, I understand that TV and movies have always over glamourized, and created a large-scale fantasy to represent reality (Yes, NBC, I'm talking about the large New York City apartment that young 20-somethings Rachel and Monica lived in; and the perfect 'beach curls' that Detective-turned-Sergeant-turned-Captain Oliva Benson manages every morning). But since in 1937, people only had the movies to fulfill their visual fantasy, I assume that the glamorized version of reality was even more exaggerated. But as an aside, if Myra Loy's and William Powell's apartment in the Thin Man movie series really exists, and really doesn't cost a million dollars, I want it.
While thoroughly enjoying Jean Arthur's sweet, hilarious, and wise-cracking innocent ways, I was surprised by how much I also enjoyed the talent of her co-star, Ray Milland, who plays the rich banker's son. I had previously only seen Milland in one other film - 1944's The Uninvited. While I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill-fest of that movie, it clearly did not allow Milland to show his true comedic talent. It was perhaps, the comedic talent of both stars that allowed the chemistry between them show so brilliantly on the screen - which was also an unexpected surprise for a slapstick comedy. From the moment they met in the cafeteria style restaurant, I was rooting for them. Through each bump, slip, miscommunication, and folly, I loved them both.
The final scenes in the movie in which the banker, played by Edward Arnold, is yelling his head off in his giant office (why do they always have to yell so much in old comedies?) grew a little thin for me, the quick-comedic pace of the movie never disappointed. The writing was smart and the delivery was even better - expect perhaps the part where I think technically Mary committed insider trading, but that's another discussion. The point is, unlike a Film Noir, you know they are going to live happily ever after - no matter what zany path they have to take to get there - and I was okay with that.
Hello, and Welcome!
It's now 2020; but no, starting this blog is not a New Year's Resolution - so let's get that out of the way first.
A number of years ago I had started a blog under the name Lighthouse Keeper, which filled the need at the time, of a Maritime girl straight out of central casting, thrust into the mean dirty world of the big land-locked city that is Toronto. It could not have been more of a 'fish out of water' story, truly. But since making (swimming?) my way back to my beloved part of the country, surrounded by ocean waves, I have lost the need to use my blog the way I previously had.
I had thought about reinventing the blog, but to what? And why? My desire to write battled with the availability to do so, and the content of which I would write. I refuse to turn any blog into a "dear Diary" themed piece; I don't cook, don't travel as much as I would like, and I have no desire to become a 'media influencer'...so that really limits me in what people tend to post on blog nowadays.
So it dawned on me that starting a new blog about the old movies I watch would fulfill several needs:
1. The constant pull my heart feels to type my thoughts onto a page.
2. Document the old movies I watch (I've watched so many in the last few years that I find I am losing track).
3. Not just document, but provide a movie review of sorts - but without posting publicly on IMBD or some sort of platform where others can judge (because who wants that?!).
4. Fulfill my desire to be a TCM host in the most realistic way I can.
Okay, so maybe this is a tiny bit of a New Years Resolution. Maybe.
So here's to 2020 and keeping the Golden Age of Hollywood alive and well!
PS - Although I'm posting as "Dame Ingénue" (if you don't understand that name, please let me know and I will give you a lesson in old movies 101) I'm keeping the account name of Lighthouse Keeper, because there would be nothing more awesome than living in a lighthouse and watching old movies.
A number of years ago I had started a blog under the name Lighthouse Keeper, which filled the need at the time, of a Maritime girl straight out of central casting, thrust into the mean dirty world of the big land-locked city that is Toronto. It could not have been more of a 'fish out of water' story, truly. But since making (swimming?) my way back to my beloved part of the country, surrounded by ocean waves, I have lost the need to use my blog the way I previously had.
I had thought about reinventing the blog, but to what? And why? My desire to write battled with the availability to do so, and the content of which I would write. I refuse to turn any blog into a "dear Diary" themed piece; I don't cook, don't travel as much as I would like, and I have no desire to become a 'media influencer'...so that really limits me in what people tend to post on blog nowadays.
So it dawned on me that starting a new blog about the old movies I watch would fulfill several needs:
1. The constant pull my heart feels to type my thoughts onto a page.
2. Document the old movies I watch (I've watched so many in the last few years that I find I am losing track).
3. Not just document, but provide a movie review of sorts - but without posting publicly on IMBD or some sort of platform where others can judge (because who wants that?!).
4. Fulfill my desire to be a TCM host in the most realistic way I can.
Okay, so maybe this is a tiny bit of a New Years Resolution. Maybe.
So here's to 2020 and keeping the Golden Age of Hollywood alive and well!
PS - Although I'm posting as "Dame Ingénue" (if you don't understand that name, please let me know and I will give you a lesson in old movies 101) I'm keeping the account name of Lighthouse Keeper, because there would be nothing more awesome than living in a lighthouse and watching old movies.
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