A lot of people equate Pre-Code films solely with scantily clad women and double entendres. There is plenty of that of course but this blind focus on sex tends to push aside the other aspects of the brief five-year period that make the early 1930s movies stand out with the Hollywood films that came after.
The Lost Patrol showcases the pessimism that strips war and global conflicts of any glamor or honor. Left without instructions or any sense of where…
I had a hard time holding my applause until the end of the picture (bum dum TISS). I had heard Applause lauded as one of the earliest talkies to nail the new format down, keeping the expressive camera techniques perfected in the silent period, but even coming in with such high of expectations I was really blown away.
The story has been done numerous times before and countless times since: a show-woman sacrificing everything to give her child a better…
The mystery plot feels straight out of a B-picture but Blondell and Brent are fun enough to keep things light.
I could watch Jimmy Cagney get himself into and out of an assortment of jams any day. It also took me WAY took long the whole grapefruit plot was a tongue in cheek reference to the infamous grapefruit In Public Enemy.
First time I hear Zasu Pitts sing “Your Mother”: Haha she’s off-key just the right amount
Second time: This song is the corniest thing ever
Third time: Ok we get the joke let’s move this thing along
Fourth time: IF THEY PLAY THAT STUPID SONG ONE MORE TIME I SWEAR I’LL…
Fifth time: *tears streaming down my face* I love my mom so much
Criterion definitely mislabels this as a screwball when it’s really more just a pretty straightforward comedy…
Genuinely surprised by how much this clicked for me. Maybe it's because a teenage Linda Darnell actually gets to play her age or Roland Young's steadying presence playing a grounded Hollywood talent recruit. Still glosses over some of the less savory aspects of Tinsletown but doesn't completely whitewash it to simply be a dream factory.
