Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

RKO

June 4, 1948

Comedy
DVD
C-

I watched the whole movie in the last ten or fifteen years and had mixed feelings then.  This time, I just didn't find the family dynamic funny, even in a sitcom kind of way.  The sarcastic opening narration about New York was much better written.  This is based on the novel by Eric Hodgins and directed by H.C. Potter, who had directed the much livelier Second Chorus seven years earlier.

Du Barry Was a Lady

Du Barry Was a Lady

MGM

August 13, 1943

Musical, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

DVD
B

An uneven but often delightful movie, with topical references to the War, pinball machines, Kay Kyser, etc.  The costumes are stunning and some of the musical numbers are a hoot.  Don't try to make sense of the plot, just have fun with it.  Roy Del Ruth directed, a couple years after Topper Returns.

(This is on a "Great Cinema Legends" collection, focusing on Lucille Ball.  Oddly enough, it includes Room Service, which is more of a Marx Brothers movie, but I own it anyway.)

Palooka

Palooka
United Artists
January 26, 1934
Sports Comedy
DVD
D+

Ham Fisher adapted his own comic strip, with the always middle-aged-looking 30-year-old Erwin as the young boxer.  Note the totally gratuitous postcard of topless "native women."  Benjamin Stoloff directed.

Bullets or Ballots

Bullets or Ballots
Warner Bros.
June 6, 1936
Crime Drama
DVD
B-

Not surprisingly, a fourth-billed-but-on-the-rise Bogie is the best thing about this movie, although it is interesting to see him set up as Robinson's rival onscreen.  The script is pretty sharp, although I felt like, despite the Warner Bros. fast pace, it could've actually been tighter, with too much time setting up phone calls and meetings and the like.  (The 1939 radio version, which is included on the DVD, eliminates much of this of course, although I prefer Blondell's version of Lee to Mary Astor's.)  Besides the proto-noirish feel of not knowing who to trust or believe, this movie is notable for actually managing to casually show four African-American performers onscreen together, including of course scene-stealer Louise Beavers.

William Keighley directed this movie a couple years before The Adventures of Robin Hood.

42nd Street

42nd Street
Warner Bros
March 11, 1933
Musical
DVD
B-

Cast I recognize:

• Louise Beavers as Pansy, Dorothy's Maid
• Ruby Keeler as Peggy Sawyer
• The never-aging Charles Lane (seriously, this guy looked much the same in the '70s) as the Author of Pretty Lady
• Una Merkel as Lorraine Fleming
• Dick Powell as Billy Lawler
• The marvelous Ginger Rogers as Ann "Anytime" Lowell
• Lyle Talbot as Geoffrey Warning

Yes, finally we've got to a movie from the library that I could sit all the way through, and it figures it's definitely the oldest one yet.  It's not only '30s, it's pre-Code, which means lots of revealing costumes and racy dialogue and lyrics, including from the saucy pair of Rogers and Merkel.  There's even a song comparing love to drug addiction! It also mentions The Great Depression more than once, while some of its contemporaries are set in a fantasy world where money is never discussed.  In some ways, this feels like the most "modern" movie I've looked at so far for this blog, but it also has corny melodrama and cliches that it may've invented, or at least popularized, but are still cliches.  (It's based on a 1932 Bradford Ropes novel.)  I know this film is regarded as a classic, but I could've actually done with less backstage stuff and more of the show within a show.

Lloyd Bacon directed but choreographer Busby Berkeley is deservedly the household name.