Category: Film

Two lists of romantic comedies

The first list was almost all modern movies so another person prepared a list of older films. I know the old ones better and there are some great ones there like Ball of Fire, Bringing Up Baby, It Happened One Night, The Lady Eve and The Philadelphia Story.

American films based on 19th Century English novels

I recently watched Wuthering Heights (1939), Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Jane Eyre (1943), three deluxe Hollywood productions.

I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice the most because it’s funny in a sophisticated way. The acting in all three is excellent: Laurence Olivier stars in Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice, Greer Garson in Pride and Prejudice, and Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine in Jane Eyre.

I must admit I have read none of the novels so I don’t know how faithful they are to the books but they’re all fine movies.

Gregg Toland, best known for his work on Citizen Kane (1941), won an Academy Award for Cinematography for Wuthering Heights.

Huxley

Four Warner Archive Blu-rays

I recently watched four Warner Archive Blu-rays from the 1940s. They are much better than Warner Archive DVDs which are DVD-Rs and don’t have subtitles or extras unless they are a re-release of a prior Warner DVD. They could all be described as film noirs. None are classics but they are worth a look.

I have previously posted about The Window (1949).

Then there are are two films where the lead actor played a role which was not like their usual one. Lawrence Tierney usually was a bad guy and Robert Young was generally a good guy.

In They Won’t Believe Me (1947) Young plays a slimeball who cheats on his wife and mistreats his girlfriends. Ultimately, he is tried for a murder he didn’t commit but set himself up to be charged for. Young is best known for TV shows Marcus Welby, MD and Father Knows Best. The female leads, Jane Greer, Susan Hayward, and Rita Johnson are outstanding (and much more believable than Young). Warner Archive has restored the film from 80 minutes to its full 95 minutes and the disc looks great.

Step By Step (1946) stars Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys. Tierney is best known for Dillinger and Born To Kill where he played bad guys but here is on the right side trying to solve an espionage crime. As usual, Warner Archive has done a great job.

I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948) is about a man falsely accused of murder (like characters in the other two films above). This film has also been given a fine transfer to disc.

Summer of Soul is excellent

Summer of Soul won a well-deserved Academy Award last night. Questlove did an outstanding job on this film.

There’s lots of great music. The film includes gospel, jazz, and Latin music as well as R&B. The performances are great. You see Stevie Wonder on the verge of greatness. Sly and the Family Stone were dynamic. As far as I know, they were the only musicians to perform in Harlem and Woodstock in 1969. I saw them in Philadelphia that year and they were great. Nina Simone’s performance was one of the highlights.

Questlove has incorporated interviews with performers and people who worked on the concerts. Some of them are seeing the footage for the first time. One great move was his inclusion of interviews with people who attended the concerts.

The best thing Questlove did was place the concerts in the context of the larger world in 1969. He rightly focuses on the fight for racial equality and even includes the moon landing (which is an indelible memory for those of us old enough to remember it).

I watched it on DVD. Now that it won an Oscar, I hope it is released on Blu-ray. The old film is in surprisingly good shape.

Questlove on ‘Summer of Soul’ Secrets, The Roots’ Future, His Sly Stone Documentary