1942 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1942. My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). 

All this and World War II.

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
The Palm Beach Story
Now, Voyager
Casablanca
To Be or Not to Be
Cat People
The Magnificent Ambersons
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Mrs. Miniver

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1942 is…To Be or Not to Be

To Be or Not to Be

It has been many years since I've seen To Be or Not to Be, and after watching it again, I think it is rightly regarded as a classic. The story is about a company of Polish actors during the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. The plot is thick with intrigue, but most of all it's also a very funny film. The cast is headed by Jack Benny. Jack later became one of the biggest stars on television during the 50's, where he always made fun of his movie career. But he is great in the lead role and very funny. His delivery at times reminds me of Groucho Marx, who is about the only other person I could picture playing this role of the hammy actor. This is also the last role for Carole Lombard, who died in an airplane crash shortly after this movie was made. She was also great here and her death was a great loss to cinema. I also like the fact that this movie came out right in the middle of World War II. Something to be said for mocking Hitler when he was still a force to be reckoned with. Much credit should also be given to director Ernest Lubitsch and screenwriters Melchior Lengyel and Edwin Justus Mayer. 

To Be or Not to Be

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1942 is...Casablanca

Casablanca

How can I leave out Casablanca? Like Citizen Kane, the story of Rick, Ilsa and the rest of the Casablanca gang is such a classic (and still so bloody entertaining) that it would have to go in a category somewhere. The only question should it go in the art piece category? I'm not even sure what year to put it in. It did have a brief 1942 release, but didn't win the Oscar until the following year. I'm just putting it down for 1942, though it would win for me for 1943, too.

Casablanca

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 14 of 20)

 Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart bicker

in The Shop Around the Corner

as boss Frank Morgan looks on

The Shop Around the Corner may me known more to modern day audiences as one of the inspirations for The Tom Hanks movie We've Got Mail. It's also not in the 1001 book...and it was released in January of 1940 , but by golly I'm making an entry for it in More 1001 Movies from the 30's anyway!

The film is directed by Ernest Lubitsch and the screenplay is by Samuel Raphaelson, who collaborated on the classic Trouble in Paradise. Screenplay credit (at least belatedly) also goes to Ben Hecht who collaborated with Lubitsch on Design for Living.

The plot involves the goings on in a Budapest leather goods store featuring top salesman Kralik (Jimmy Stewart), his demanding boss Matuschek (Frank Morgan), the shady salesman (Joseph Schildkrauf) and family man Pirovitch (Felix Bressart). Their lives get complicated with the hiring of the pretty and opinionated Miss Novak (Margaret Sullavan). The plot involves the intrigue, back stabbing and mistaken identity that goes on at the store...including the budding romance between Kralik and Miss Novak. They don't like each other very much for most of the movie, but I think we know that will change by the end credits.

It's a fun romp with engaging performers and I am definitely a Lubitsch fan...which is why I added this film to my list in the first place. I also really like that little leather goods shop. Next time I'm in Budapest, I'll see if it's still there...

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Margaret Sullivan. I don't think I had ever seen a movie with Margaret Sullivan until I saw her in the war drama The Mortal Storm (Also, released in 1940 and also starring Jimmy Stewart). I thought she was quite good in that and was surprised she didn't get an Academy Award nomination for it (neither did the film). 

Margaret Sullavan hoping that Jimmy Stewart will leave
so she will meet her blind date who she doesn't know is
actually Jimmy Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner

 In The Shop Around the Corner, she gets to show off her comic chops as the girl who Stewart eventually gets around to dating once he discovers he actually likes her and she discovers she likes him and they go through the whole mistaken identity thing before coming together at the end of the film.

Sullivan was one of the top leading ladies of Hollywood from 1933-1943, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Three Comrades in 1938. Yet, she isn't really held in the same regard as other of her contemporaries of the era. This is probably because her she pretty much quit making films after 1943. Her later life was definitely the stuff of drama involving mental illness, physical infirmity, drug addiction, family problems and a premature death in 1960 at the age of 50.

Haywire, a  TV mini-series based on her daughter's book about Sullavan's life was broadcast  in 1980.

I think Haywire by Brooke Hayward and Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford  might make an interesting reading double feature for those so inclined...

TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 13 of 20)

Miriam Hopkins and George Marshall are the 

charming thieves in Trouble in Paradise

Peter Bogdanovich referred to Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise as a "real treasure" and a for years forgotten gem from the Lubitsch film cannon. This film is a succinct, witty and thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy that wasn't shown for many years (according to Bogdanovich) after the Hays code was implemented because it actually showed thieves in a positive light and let the leading man go from woman to woman, etc...Anyway...It is a delightful romp and certainly worth 83 minutes of your time...or 166 if you want to see it twice...#math. Screenplay by Lubitsch regular Samson Rapahelson. Starring George Marshall with Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis as the women in his life. Edward Everett Horton and Charlie Ruggles play hapless suitors. C. Aubrey Smith also has an important supporting role as a shady board member of Francis's company.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Charles Ruggles

Horton and Ruggles play the amusing but unsuccessful

suitors of Kay Francis in Trouble in Paradise

Charles Ruggles spent a long career as a supporting player in Hollywood, almost always playing someone articulate and proper, but often befuddled in the long run as in Trouble in Paradise. Other major films for Ruggles include: Ruggles of Red Gap (where he interestingly doesn't play Ruggles) and Bringing Up Baby. One only has to look at the names of his characters to see the type of role he usually played: Viscount Gilbert de Varèze (Love Me Tonight), J. Elliot Dinwiddy and Lowell Eddings Farquar, his character from later appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies.

He also played one of Aunt Bee's suitors in a later episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

Charlie Ruggles romances Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) in

an episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

In fact...Aunt Bee was romanced by many other character actors during the course of that show...Will Geer, Denver Pyle, Edgar Buchanan, Woody Chambliss,Wallace Ford, Ian Wolfe...but I digress.

DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 12 of 20) 

Gary Cooper and Fredrick March admire a saucy dame

in Design for Living

Ernst Lubitsch's Design for Living did not make the 1001 movie cut, but is certainly a must see for all you pre-code Hollywood film junkies (a select and admirable group, I must say). Gary Cooper and Frederich March are two Bohemian artist buddies living in Paris who meet up and fall for the attractive Miriam Hopkins. Ms. Hopkins works for the stuffy Edward Everett Horton who could in turn help the boys with their careers if they play their cards right. The clever goings on can be credited to writers Noel Coward and Ben Hecht, as well as Lubitsch and his stars. I also don't know if the way Miriam Hopkins jumps around from man to man in this film would have passed the muster after the Hays code was passed the following year, but it's hard to imagine the film working without it.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton was one of Hollywood's top second bananas for years, mostly in films in the 1930's and 40's.. His wit and articulate speech seem made for a film like Design for Living,  though you know he isn't going to succeed in his ultimate quest for the girl...even if she does marry him! Other movies I've seen Horton in include: Top Hat, Arsenic and Old Lace, Alice in Wonderland (1933, as The Mad Hatter), Lost Horizon (as the paleontologist), Here Comes Mr. Jordan, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise

The marriage of Edward Everett Horton to Miriam Hopkins
in Design for Living is designed to be short

I first became aware of Horton (even if I didn't know his name) as the narrator on the classic cartoon Fractured Fairy Tales. This segment was part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show and Horton's wonderfully dignified voice added much to the rather goofy antics of the cartoon itself.

 Opening credits to Fractured Fairy Tales

 He also played the politically incorrect Chief Roaring Chicken in several episodes of the 60's sitcom F-Troop, which I still have fond memories of watching with my mother.

He parodied his F-Troop as Chief Screaming Chicken in an episode of Batman.

 

Edward Everett Horton and Adam West

in Batman

TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 21 of 50)

It has been many years since I've seen To Be or Not to Be, and after watching it again, I think it is rightly regarded as a classic. The story is about a company of Polish actors during the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. The plot is thick with intrigue, but most of all it's also a very funny film. The cast is headed by Jack Benny. Jack later became one of the biggest stars on television during the 50's, where he always made fun of his movie career. But he is great in the lead role and very funny. His delivery at times reminds me of Groucho Marx, who is about the only other person I could picture playing this role of the hammy actor. This is also the last role for Carole Lombard, who died in an airplane crash shortly after this movie was made. She was also great here and her death was a great loss to cinema. I also like the fact that this movie came out right in the middle of World War II. Something to be said for mocking Hitler when he was still a force to be reckoned with. Much credit should also be given to director Ernest Lubitsch and screenwriters Melchior Lengyel and Edwin Justus Mayer. 

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Sig Ruman. German born Ruman played a great comic foil in many films, including the classics A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Ninotchka and Stalag 17. In To Be or Not to Be, Sig is a Nazi that just can't seem to get his facts right and despite his best efforts always seems to be duped. A couple of his scenes with Benny are real classics. His Colonel Erhardt seems like it may have been used a model for the incompetent Colonel Klink in the 60's TV show Hogan's Heroes.