1939 and 1989 - Golden Years of Movies — Page 2

Mitchell Leisen films:

Death Takes a Holiday

Murder at the Vanities is a pre-code backstage musical murder mystery and has a famous production number "Sweet Marahuana." Campy and fun.

ETA: The Vanities in question is the Earl Carroll's Vanities, the popular poor man's (dare I say it, white trash) version of the Ziegfeld Follies. After looking at Wikipedia and IMDB, it appears that most of the showgirls are from that year's Vanities. The supporting cast includes Kitty Carlisle, Jack Oakie, Victor McLaglen, Duke Ellington and Orchestra and Toby Wing. If you don't know who these people are, well forget it. If you do, this film is so much fun AND a historical document.

Easy Living is a classic screwball comedy written by Preston Sturgis and stars Jean Arthur.

To Each His Own is a soap opera but extremely well done. Olivia de Havilland won the best actress Oscar for it.

Hold Back the Dawn is another soap opera but it's written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder and both the picture and de Havilland were Oscar nominated.

The Big Broadcast of 1937. Very hard to find because it's never been released on home video. A trifle, but the cast includes Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, and Benny Goodman and his orchestra with Gene Krupa, all at their best.

The Big Broadcast of 1938. Insane plot about two racing ocean liners, S.S. Gigantic and S.S. Colossus, one of which is owned by W.C. Fields. Along for the ride are Dorothy Lamour, Martha Raye, Ben Blue, Bob Hope introducing "Thanks for the Memory" and Kirsten Flagstad singing Brunnhilde's war cry "Ho Jo To Ho!" from Wagner's Die Walküre. Could I make this up?

Remember the Night. Bittersweet romantic comedy-drama written by Preston Sturgis starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Like Wilder with Midnight, Sturgis decided to become a director because he was so upset with the changes Leisen made to his script.

Swing High, Swing Low. Romantic drama starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray as a struggling saxophone player. Based on the Broadway hit Burlesque with screenplay co-written by Oscar Hammerstein.


I'd start with Easy Living.

Updated On: 9/3/13 at 07:35 PM

NoName3 - WOW! Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post all that.

I will start with Easy Living as you suggest. love Jean Arthur and Preston Sturgis. Going back to Claudette Colbert - I loved The Palm Beach Story too - but I digress.

I had no idea what the Vanities were - I would probably have been more likely to go see them than the Ziegfeld Follies if I'd lived back then, lol. I recognise most of the names from Murder of the Vanities, possibly because of Mae West.

Anyway, every film you mention appeals to me. Thank you again.
I really appreciate all the trouble you have went to.

Obviously bestie's claims of '39 and '89 can't be argued.

Well, 1939 isn't "my claim." It is widely considered by film historians and critics alike to be the best all-around year for movies ever.

I just added 1989 to it. That's "my claim."



EDIT: I really like so many of these other banner years, though. At the time, they might not have seemed like a golden year, but they sure do, looking back on them now.

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Updated On: 9/3/13 at 09:10 AM

I'm glad to hear others recognize 1989.

Not that I would ever seriously think it's a unique idea, or start one of those "Am I the only one who ...?" threads.

Because that's just dumb.

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I'm 100% with you, Patronus. Actually, several of my all-time favories were made during 1995-1997. Those were my 14-16-year-old years. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

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I was being sardonic.

I also called them "so-so."

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News flash: people are complicated. They aren't all one thing. They aren't programmed like robots. It's possible to work actively toward the future while missing elements from the past. Even elements that stand in direct conflict to "who you are."

His retired activist character is trying to come to terms with who he is, who he was, what he did, and what he should do now. He is lost.

He is also completely disillusioned by his former activist self and everything that has happened to the world since. He has withdrawn from it.

But if your summary is all you took away from Field of Dreams, so be it. I think it's a shame.

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Updated On: 9/3/13 at 12:34 PM

LOL

Did you just plow over your major crop?

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In the book Field of Dreams is based on (Shoeless Joe), the reclusive writer that Ray seeks is none other than J.D. Salinger, but Salinger threatened to sue if his name or likeness were used, so the character was changed to a fictional African-American writer.

So there.

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for your consideration: 2002

Far From Heaven
Chicago
The Road to Perdition
Talk to Her
Y Tu Mama Tambien
The Magdalene Sisters
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Nowhere in Africa
Minority Report
Bloody Sunday
Spirited Away
Catch Me If You Can
About Schmidt
The Pianist
The Hours
Adaptation
The Quiet American
Bowling for Columbine
City of God
Punch Drunk Love
The Cockettes
Auto Focus
The Piano Teacher
Secretary
Real Women Have Curves
Thirteen
Capturing the Friedmans
Monsoon Wedding
Rabbit Proof Fence
Russian Ark
Spider Man
The Bourne Identity
Yossi & Jagger
Bend it Like Beckham
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Updated On: 9/3/13 at 01:32 PM

To answer a question from a while back, Herbert Ross directed The Turning Point and The Goodbye Girl, and both were Best Picture nominated. And, 1977 is one of my favorite movie years.

The Goodbye Girl
Star Wars
Close Encounters
Annie Hall
Looking For Mr. Goodbar
The Turning Point
Equus
Three Women
Julia
Saturday Night Fever
High Anxiety
That Obscure Object of Desire
A Special Day

And many more. It was a year of movies that couldn't/wouldn't be made a few years earlier or later.

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May be my favorite line from any movie ever:

"When I married, I didn't realize that in the Czerny family there was a streak of... shall we say, eccentricity? And yet, I had warning. Why else should his grandfather have sent me, as an engagement present, one roller skate - covered with Thousand Island dressing?"

Eve Peabody, MIDNIGHT (1939)

Updated On: 9/7/13 at 10:25 PM