MGM’s 1941 version of Charley’s Aunt shouldn’t be a neglected gem. It was very popular when it was released. It made the studio a lot of money. The play on which it is based has been one of the most popular farces in modern history. Wikipedia tells me that it has been performed continuously allContinue reading “Charley’s Aunt (1941)”
Category Archives: Neglected Gems
His Butler’s Sister (1943)
For most film historians, the “continental style” of Hollywood comedies in the Interwar period was represented by Ernst Lubitsch and his circle at Paramount Studios, and later by the Jeanette Macdonald-Nelson Eddy operetta kitschfests at MGM. What this received knowledge ignores are the Deanna Durbin musicals at Universal Studios, produced and written by the circleContinue reading “His Butler’s Sister (1943)”
Maisie Was A Lady (1941)
Maisie Was a Lady, the fourth film in the MAISIE franchise, is the best made of the nine MAISIE films. (I take a stab at describing the MAISIE series here.) Cinematically, it’s the most polished. Its script is the tightest (the MAISIE dream-team of Mary McCall, Jr. and Betty Reinhardt was joined by Capra-BFF MylesContinue reading “Maisie Was A Lady (1941)”
Wintertime (1943)
Wintertime was the last of the nine Sonja Henie skate-musicals made by the Fox studios, and basically the last notable film in her career. It was also the last film the indefatigable Cesar Romero made for Fox before shipping off to the Pacific theater. (He was already enlisted when the film was shot, and shippedContinue reading “Wintertime (1943)”
Love Crazy (1941)
Following the popularity of The Thin Man in 1934, MGM decided to keep the golden pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy running on two parallel streams. One was to be the series of increasingly tepid and unimaginative sequels to The Thin Man. The other was a string of stand-alone comedies, all of them betterContinue reading “Love Crazy (1941)”
Gold Rush Maisie (1940)
Gold Rush Maisie was the third film in the ten-film MAISIE series, and the first that was not based on stories by Wilson Collison. (I take a stab at describing the MAISIE enterprise here.) That freedom allowed scriptwriter Mary McCall, Jr. and the series’s star Ann Sothern to imagine their picara heroine’s trajectory their ownContinue reading “Gold Rush Maisie (1940)”
Congo Maisie (1940)
Congo Maisie was the second of the popular MAISIE series starring Ann Sothern as the eponymous showgirl-picara. (I try to capture the gist of the whole ten-film “Maisie” enterprise here.) It was also the last of the films to be based on the novels by Wilson Collison, who had earlier written the play on whichContinue reading “Congo Maisie (1940)”
Maisie (1939)
Maisie was the first of MGM’s immensely popular series of ten films spanning the war years, starring Ann Sothern as Maisie Ravier, a showgirl picara wandering from situation to situation, setting to setting, job to job, and genre to genre. Beautiful, sexy, honest, endowed with an Irish-inflected proletarian p.o.v., an acute observer with a bitingContinue reading “Maisie (1939)”
Spring Parade (1940)
Among the neglected gems of Hollywood comedies of the Interwar period, Spring Parade has to be among the most neglected, and the gemmiest. Even though it is one of Deanna Durban’s best films, it is accessible only in a badly deteriorated print (the consequence of a long copyright dispute). As a result, the available versionsContinue reading “Spring Parade (1940)”
One Way Passage (1932)
I’ve come late to appreciating Tay Garnett’s comedies, of which One Way Passage is probably the best. Garnett, who was once a darling of French cinéastes, is most remembered nowadays for his exotic action and war films like Slave Ship and Bataan and the noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice. He also made fineContinue reading “One Way Passage (1932)”