Stage Door is one of the most revered movies in the high canon of classic Hollywood comedies, deservedly. Probably the most utopian, non-heterosexist story produced by Hollywood by that time. Read as queer, it works. Read as women’s friendship and solidarity, it works, too. As critique of the whole infrastructure of romantic comedy, also works.Continue reading “Stage Door (1937)”
Category Archives: 1937
A Damsel in Distress (1937)
A Damsel in Distress was the first film in the RKO Astaire-Rogers period in which Astaire was featured solo. The Astaire-Rogers magic was wearing thin by 1937. The previous year’s Shall We Dance was less popular than the films that preceded it, and both stars were eager to decouple. The studio decided to take AstaireContinue reading “A Damsel in Distress (1937)”
Shall We Dance (1937)
Shall We Dance has been my favorite Astaire-Rogers film for a long time. That said, it has most of the flaws of the earlier films — a dull plot, uninspired camera work, bad jokes, bad pacing, and interminable mugging from Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore. Except for the dances, it feels tired. And theContinue reading “Shall We Dance (1937)”
On the Avenue (1937)
On paper, On the Avenue looks like a great classical Hollywood musical. All the songs are by Irving Berlin. It’s directed by Roy Del Ruth, an unsung master of the genre. It stars Dick Powell, Alice Faye, and Madeleine Carroll. The script is by two good writers, Gene Markey and William Conselman. Lucien Andriot wasContinue reading “On the Avenue (1937)”
Easy Living (1937)
Easy Living figures in everyone’s canon of classic Hollywood comedies. With a screenplay by Preston Sturges, a luminous performance by Jean Arthur, and one of the looniest farcical premises in the whole genre (not the looniest — that would be Christmas in July), it seems to stand alone. The brilliant script includes some of theContinue reading “Easy Living (1937)”
The Awful Truth (1937)
Many film historians feel that The Awful Truth is the first true screwball comedy. I’m not sure about that, or even if it matters, but it is a very special comedy. It was directed and basically constructed on the set by Leo McCarey, one of the giants of Hollywood comic film, and the star actors,Continue reading “The Awful Truth (1937)”
Nothing Sacred (1937)
Nothing Sacred is very funny and true to its title, very irreverent. It’s a core film in the screwball canon. It’s one of Carole Lombard’s showcase comedies, and the script, credited to Ben Hecht, is crazy witty. For all that, I’m not crazy about it. There are strange things going on that put me offContinue reading “Nothing Sacred (1937)”
Stand In (1937)
Stand In isn’t well known. It’s not quite obscure, since Humphrey Bogart has a supporting role in it and the Bogart cult would never let one of his films be ignored. (As it happens, Bogart is the weakest link in it — he snarls, smoulders, and mugs his way through the story, humorless as heContinue reading “Stand In (1937)”
One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)
One Hundred Men and a Girl was Deanna Durbin’s second film, and like the first, Three Smart Girls, it was conceived and directed by Henry Koster. Its premise is sweet and daring. Durbin plays the daughter of a down-and-out symphony orchestra director, John Cardwell (Adolphe Menjou), whose one-hundred person orchestra is out of work. TheyContinue reading “One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)”
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
Variety-show comedies were extremely popular in the 1930s, even before they hit their peak during the war years. They were patterned on vaudeville, music hall, and cabaret stage shows that included a lot of different kinds of acts — hence “variety” — and could be built into spectacular star vehicles in New York, Paris, andContinue reading “Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)”