Old Acquaintance | Warner Bros | Vincent Sherman | Bette Davis / Miriam Hopkins | 1943
an old-school shriekfest waged between two timebombs of melodramatized neurosis. the 40s Warners BDavis hysteria cycle is always rewarding imo, but Miriam Hopkins as the best-friend-cum-rival-author just makes it so much more thrilling. amazing that this is also the same play that is the basis of George Cukor’s Rich and Famous, a far lesser film than this one i must say.
Going Hollywood | MGM / Walter Wanger | Raoul Walsh | Bing Crosby / Marion Davies | 1933
i always show up for Raoul Walsh but when you throw endlessly fascinating renegade independent producer Walter Wanger into the mix, and Donald Ogden Stewart (he who is responsible for the ‘light existentialism as wrought within society’s upper echelons’ stuff in the screenplays for Holiday and The Philadelphia Story) on top of that, then it becomes the ultimate enticement on my to-watch list. this is my first Marion Davies flick, and she’s perfect here, all slumbery and dreamlike and the most languid wit — well hold up, i mean she’s perfect until this abominable blackface scene that made me hate humanity for a hot minute. so yeah this is definitely a flawed flick, very schizoid movie made about Hollywood’s self-image, there’s a real mania and verve to the direction that’s classic Walsh, some of the musical numbers and montages are insane. Bing Crosby is so much more interesting when he’s a young crooner playboy than when he becomes America’s favorite priest with Going My Way in 1944. here he’s self-consciously fucking around with his image onscreen the way Dean Martin later would in something like Kiss Me Stupid.
The Blue Gardenia | Columbia (?) | Fritz Lang | Anne Baxter / Richard Conte | 1953
Anne Baxter is one of the all-time greatest actors in Hollywood history, def a less bombastic star than many of her contemporaries and super underrated as a result. no one ever talks about her! her character detailing is so skilled in this one. it's extremely dark, with Raymond Burr’s attempt to date-rape her catalyzing the whole knotty noiry plot. it maybe gets less interesting and more formulaic as it proceeds but it’s so masterfully directed all the way through i just couldn’t bring myself to care.
Hearts Divided | Warner Bros | Frank Borzage | Dick Powell / Marion Davies | 1936
this fuckin sucked. i can’t believe Borzage also produced this! what a gargantuan airball dude. this is just cutesy bullshit about Dick Powell is Napoleon’s (Claude Rains!!!) younger brother who, lemme remember, passes himself off as Marion Davies’ lowly tutor at some random manor in New England (i forget why and how he arrives there and under what circumstances, could not hold it together for this dumb shit) so he can break free of the shackles of Great Man Theory of History fatalism and do normal guy things like fall in love, and orchestrate the most circuitous ruses in order to do so. moreover, she realizes Who He Is and they still declare their love for each other and that’s still not the end of it! there’s like a boring extra half hour of Rainspoleon castigating his lil bro with boring political disputes that have no place in a goofy costume romance. i was happy to delete this from my DVR.
The Spanish Main | RKO | Frank Borzage | Maureen O’Hara / Paul Henreid | 1945
this is more like it! vibrant if vacuous swashbuckler garble with serviceable action and good color, but that’s all i need baby. i kinda enjoyed Henreid in the Flynn role here, usually i find him so boring (no offense to the Henreid-heads). Maureen O’Hara is really worshipped by the camera in this one, she’s stunning.
Robin and Marian | Richard Lester | Sean Connery / Audrey Hepburn | 1976
i cherish Richard Lester like an old school Hollywood auteur so anything with his name on it is the very stuff of movieverse. this movie is so sweet and sugary and entertaining, another one about historical fatalism, with an aged Robin Hood realizing he never really made a substantial mark on anything. Richard Harris is Richard the Lionheart all weathered and pallid and sickly and evil (all the opening stuff with the atrocities of the Crusades is like in the tradition of the 'revisionist' Westerns of the 70s but regarding medieval lore and legend). despite all this parched and grisly mythbusting, it's not long before Robin returns to Sherwood -- where the Sheriff of Nottingham still reigns -- and kinda restores his legend by graceful, jubilant, romantic exploits, none of which are grandiloquent, just simply adventurous in the best way. Audrey Hepburn as Marian is so wonderful. but will the indefatigable romantic spirit win out? will Robin and Marian truly rejoin their hearts in love? will the Sheriff of Nottingham be vanquished once and for all? tune in to this late-70s Lester gem to find out!