If you’ve never seen Jean Harlow’s Bombshell before, you have to prepare yourself. It’s generally considered one of the great comedies of the 1930s, a surefire member of the Great Comic Canon. But it’s one of the oddest films in there. Imagine screwball marrying a nervous breakdown and having a meta-baby. It’s very funny, butContinue reading “Bombshell (1933)”
Category Archives: Lee Tracy
The Half-Naked Truth (1932)
If there’s a totally distinctive American contribution to the comic pantheon it’s probably the confidence-artist as the quintessential modern character. Clever servants and tricksters abound in tales from the Old Worlds, but they are usually outsiders of a stable village or court society. Now and then a royal pretender arrives on the scene like theContinue reading “The Half-Naked Truth (1932)”
Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)
Washington Merry-Go-Round is an inexplicably neglected gem of a political comedy from the early sound era. I can’t figure out why it gets so little respect. Maybe it’s because its director, James Cruze, a visually inventive director of silents, didn’t make many other sound films and never made the A-list. Maybe its star, speed-talking LeeContinue reading “Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)”