The 1938 version of Sally, Irene and Mary is nominally a remake of a famous but hard to get silent musical made in 1925. The original starred Constance Bennett, Joan Crawford, and Sally O’Neil as the title characters. That original is a well made and visually interesting comedy/melodrama, directed by the legendary Edmund Goulding, andContinue reading “Sally, Irene and Mary (1938)”
Category Archives: 1938
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
At this moment, I consider Howard Hawks’s Bringing Up Baby the greatest comedy Hollywood ever produced. I may change my mind. I haven’t always been that fond of it. Each time I watched it in the past (there have been many) I saw something iffy, and it was always something different — chunky pacing, stuffyContinue reading “Bringing Up Baby (1938)”
The Mad Miss Manton (1938)
The Mad Miss Manton is one of the dozens of comedy-whodunits made in the 1930s following the success of The Thin Man. Although you rarely hear it mentioned as a classic of the period, it’s always praised as one of the funnier films. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda three years before their collaborationContinue reading “The Mad Miss Manton (1938)”
Four’s a Crowd (1938)
So here’s an example of how my taste differs from most people’s. Four’s a Crowd does not get much love, neither from film historians nor from audiences, despite the fact that it was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Errol Flynn, Rosalind Russell, and Olivia de Havilland. The consensus seems to be that it’s somewhatContinue reading “Four’s a Crowd (1938)”
Little Miss Broadway (1938)
Little Miss Broadway isn’t one of Shirley Temple’s best movies. She had already made most of her classic films, and she’s beginning to grow out of her preternatural kawaii cuteness. Those earlier films are full of invention and energy, and she seems uncannily natural no matter what she’s required to do. The story of LittleContinue reading “Little Miss Broadway (1938)”
Happy Landing (1938)
Happy Landing was the third film Sonja Henie made for 20th Century Fox. She was a monster star in her day, the first female professional skater to become an international sensation. 20th Century Fox was a maverick studio in the 1930s that tended to make low-budget musical comedies that featured some unusual, and unusually good,Continue reading “Happy Landing (1938)”