As a film comedy, Ninotchka is as close to perfect as the Hollywood studio system could ever produce. As an event — the conjunction of Garbo, Lubitsch, Brackett and Wilder, and MGM — it’s almost supernatural. As a Hollywood product, it’s that exceedingly rare thing: it’s a unique comedy. It’s both a loving parody ofContinue reading “Ninotchka (1939) – 1.”
Author Archives: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.
Top Hat (1935)
Top Hat is considered by many to be the best of the Astaire-Rogers films, and for many others it’s second only to Swing Time. I don’t feel that way. I’m not crazy about it and I like it less and less with each viewing. I know that’s very much a minority opinion but it’s myContinue reading “Top Hat (1935)”
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Gold Diggers of 1933 — directed by Mervyn LeRoy and spectacularized by Busby Berkeley — has been more thoroughly watched, interpreted, contextualized, explained, poked, prodded, and dissected over the years than any other comedy of the era. It has been glossed in terms the male gaze, the commodification of women, the reduction of female bodiesContinue reading “Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)”
42nd Street (1933)
42nd Street was the first of the four monumental musicals associated with Busby Berkeley in the miracle years of 1933 and 1934. (The others were Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade, and Dames.) For a long time they were lumped together, as if they were parts of single artifact, the revolutionary Busby Berkeley spectacle-film. ContemporaryContinue reading “42nd Street (1933)”
Libeled Lady (1936)
Libeled Lady hits the sweetest spot of Hollywood comedies of the interwar era. It’s a transcendent example of the genre, a fusion of literate script, sharp-witted dialogue, brilliant acting, pacing, mise-en-scène, and all the screwball virtues: quick-reacting women, overconfident men with absurd plans, rapid-fire repartee and pratfalls, newsroom machismo and high-society suavité. It’s miraculous, actually,Continue reading “Libeled Lady (1936)”
Little Miss Marker (1934)
Little Miss Marker was Shirley Temple’s breakthrough film. She was five years old when she made it. Watching her in it is an unnerving experience in more ways than one. The whole film is a weird experience. Directed by Alexander Hall, some of it is so bad, so poorly paced and edited, and so oldContinue reading “Little Miss Marker (1934)”
Midnight (1939)
Midnight is one of a couple dozen films of the period that I have a hard time writing about. It’s in the top tier of my personal canon and one of the reasons I began this blogging project. It’s almost perfect in my eyes, synthesizing everything that was good about Hollywood comedies of the interwarContinue reading “Midnight (1939)”
Follow the Fleet (1936)
I had an deep affection for Follow the Fleet for many years, but it’s time for me to admit that it’s not very good. There’s no doubt that it’s an unusual and interesting film in the Astaire-Rogers canon but watching it soberly now, it seems uninspired, spliced together with carpet tacks, hastily made and under-rehearsed.Continue reading “Follow the Fleet (1936)”
The Comic Spirit
The basic premise of this blog is that comedies spin worlds in which the human condition is mediated by a spirit, the Spirit of Comedy. It is intangible, and inexpressible except in the embodied forms of comedy. Above all, it is a mischievous trickster spirit. The Comic Spirit intervenes in the best-laid plans (actually, theyContinue reading “The Comic Spirit”
The Merry Widow (1934)
The Merry Widow is probably my favorite of Lubitsch’s film. Until recently it didn’t get much love from film critics and historians, compared with many other Lubitsch comedies. I suspect that was because it appeared to many folks to be just the final sigh of the Jeanette Macdonald-Maurice Chevalier Ruritanian frou-frou musical farces, and itContinue reading “The Merry Widow (1934)”