My Favorite Film Discoveries of 2023

On February 15, 2024February 16, 2024 By whimsicallyclassic (Kayla)In Favorite Classic Movies (Pre-1980)4 Comments

Happy Valentines Day, everyone! We’re about a month and a half into 2024 now, but I didn’t want to get too far into the New Year without having talked about my favorite new discoveries of last year. Per my Letterboxd stats page, last year I watched 397 films. I really wish I’d managed to squeeze in 3 more so I’d have an even 400, but alas. Now that’s not to say that all 397 titles were unique. I tend to rewatch movies, especially my favorites. Last year’s most watched stars were Joan Blondell, Barbara Stanwyck, Loretta Young, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. My most watched directors were Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Curtiz, Mitchell Leisen, and William Wyler.

All in all, it was a good year for movie viewing–especially since I got to attend my first ever TCM Film Festival and had the best movie viewing experience of my life–Casablanca in Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I’d seen that movie four other times in the theater, and nothing will ever top seeing it at Grauman’s. For the record, my second best movie experience of the year was seeing Barbarella in 35mm at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR. Seeing a campy movie like Barbarella with an audience that was completely entranced and loving every second, was fantastic. There was even a girl dressed like Barbarella, in a short silver dress, knee-high boots, and big hair–despite it being January in Oregon! Now that’s dedication!

Anyway, without further adieu, these are all my new watches of 2023:

The Apple (1980)
Appointment with Danger (1950)
Arsene Lupin (1932)
Ask Father (1919)
Barbie (2023)
Because of You (1952)
Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
Big Business Girl (1931)
Big City Blues (1932)
Billy Blazes Esq. (1919)
Black Angel (1946)
Born to Be Bad (1934)
Born to Kill (1947)
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Brute Force (1949)
Captain Carey, USA (1949)
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
The Children’s Hour (1961)
China (1943)
Cops (1922)
Deadline at Dawn (1946)
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
Deception (1946)
Deep Valley (1947)
Desert Fury (1947)
The Desperate Hours (1955)
The Doctor and the Girl (1949)
Dragonwyck (1946)
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
An Eastern Westerner (1920)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Experiment Perilous (1944)
Fallen Angel (1945)
The Famous Ferguson Case (1932)
Father Goose (1964)
Female on the Beach (1955)

The Five Pennies (1959)
Flaming Star (1960)
Flaxy Martin (1949)
Footlight Parade (1933)
Framed (1947)
A Free Soul (1931)
The Gilded Lily (1935)
Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)
Grand Slam (1933)
The Great Moment (1944)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3 (2023)
Harvey (1950)
High and Dizzy (1920)
High Pressure (1932)
Honky Tonk (1941)
Houseboat (1959)
The Iron Mistress (1952)
I’ve Got Your Number (1934)
King Kong (1933)
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
Ladies in Retirement (1941)
The Lady in Question (1940)
The Lady is Willing (1942)
Larceny, Inc. (1942)
Life Begins (1932)
The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933)
Love Has Many Faces (1965)
Love Me Tender (1956)
Make Me a Star (1932)
The Man I Love (1946)
The Mask of Dimitrios (1946)
Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk (1935)
Mr. Soft Touch (1949)
Mrs. Parkington (1944)
Naughty But Nice (1939)
The Navigator (1924)
Night Editor (1946)

One Week (1920)
Passion Flower (1930)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
Play Girl (1932)
The Princess Comes Across (1936)
The Purchase Price (1932)
Race Street (1948)
Red Light (1949)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Romancing the Stone (1984)
Search for Beauty (1934)
Second Honeymoon (1937)
Secret Beyond the Door (1947)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
Shakedown (1950)
Shane (1953)
The Silver Horde (1930)
Singapore (1947)
The Sky’s the Limit (1943)
Stand-In (1937)
Strange Bargain (1949)
That Touch of Mink (1962)
There’s Always a Woman (1938)
Tight Spot (1955)
Traveling Saleslady (1935)
The Unfaithful (1946)
The Unguarded Hour (1936)
Union Depot (1932)
Week-End Marriage (1932)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
Whiplash (1948)
Wild in the Country (1961)
Woman in Hiding (1950)
A Woman’s Face (1941)
A Woman’s Vengeance (1948)

That was a lot of new movies last year, 108 in fact. I discovered a lot of new favorites and discovered some films that I never want to see again (The Apple, I’m looking at you). I’m not going to include the new films I saw, but I want to go on the record to say that Barbie, The Boy and the Heron, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story were awesome.

Here are my Top 5 favorite new discoveries:

This is an incredibly misleading poster.

#1 Ladies in Retirement (1941). In September, Criterion Channel featured a series called “Gaslight Noir” which I took to mean film noir that took place during the Victorian era, but I think Criterion stated that it was “dark and moody film noir.” This film stars Ida Lupino, and was a movie that I’d heard about, but had never seen. I wasn’t even aware it was a film noir, the title makes it seem like it is a light-hearted film about rich women who live a life of leisure. However, that is definitely not what this movie is about. Ida plays spinster, Ellen Creed, who works as a housekeeper and live-in companion to her wealthy friend, Leonora Fiske. Ellen has two eccentric sisters who are about to be evicted from their apartment due to their behavior. Not wanting her sisters to be homeless, Ellen takes them in and convinces Leonora to let them stay. The sisters quickly wear out their welcome and Leonora demands that Ellen force them to leave. Not wanting her sisters to end up in an institution, Ellen takes matters into her own hands.

I did not expect the turn that this movie took and I absolutely loved it. I loved the setting of this remote English home that seems perpetually encased in fog. This movie had a spooky vibe to it and I just loved it. I wish that someone would put it out on blu ray.

#2 A Woman’s Face (1941). This is a Joan Crawford film noir that TCM played earlier this year. I’d heard of this film, but had never seen it scheduled. In this film, Joan plays blackmailer Anna Holm, a woman who bears a large, disfiguring scar on her face. Because of this disfigurement, Anna carries a lot of resentment and hostility towards others, which is why she has no empathy or remorse for carrying out her blackmail scams. Eventually, she gets plastic surgery from Dr. Gustaf Segert (Melvyn Douglas) to cover the scar. Without the scar to hide behind, Anna is forced to confront her insecurities, her anger over her past, and her current life of schemes and crimes.

Most of the plot unfolds through a series of flashbacks, told through witness testimony in a court trial, where Anna is being tried for murder. Joan Crawford’s performance is fantastic as her character evolves throughout the film. Melvyn Douglas is great as the doctor who provides emotional support and sees Anna for whom she really is. Conrad Veidt as an excellent villainous role as the wealthy Torsten Barring, her partner in crime as well as her lover. The ending of the film is exciting and memorable.

#3 Harvey (1950). This was a discovery for my husband and I at the TCM Film Festival. I’d heard of this film, but I just hadn’t gotten around to seeing it yet. We absolutely loved it. In this film, James Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a man who by all accounts is eccentric. His best friend is an imaginary friend, a 6’3.5″ rabbit named Harvey. His sister, Veta (Josephine Hull), is absolutely embarrassed and horrified by her bother’s behavior. Elwood doesn’t see anything wrong with his behavior and insists that Harvey is real. Veta eventually is so fed up that she goes down to the sanitarium to have Elwood committed and she ends up being committed herself. Harvey is expertly crafted to make the audience wonder if Elwood really is delusional and Harvey isn’t real, or is Harvey real and only Elwood can see him?

Josephine Hull won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in the 1950 Oscars race and while I don’t know that she deserved to win over Nancy Olsen for Sunset Boulevard or Thelma Ritter for All About Eve, Hull is hysterical as Veta. She very much seems like her character from Arsenic and Old Lace, except without the murder aspect. James Stewart is the true standout performance (aside from Harvey, of course) in this film. He expertly plays Elwood P. Dowd to be friendly and likeable, there isn’t really any reason to distrust or dislike him. He seems content with his life and best friend. Peggy Dow is also a lot of fun as the nurse at the sanitarium, she’s also gorgeous as well.

#4 Shakedown (1950). Speaking of Peggy Dow, she’s in this film as well. In this movie, Howard Duff plays a cock-of-the-walk photographer, Jack Early, who will do anything to get a great photo. He manages to use these tactics to score a job at a prominent San Francisco newspaper, headed up by Ellen Bennett (Dow), the photography editor and David Glover (Bruce Bennett), the editor-in-chief. David is unimpressed by Jack’s somewhat questionable methods for getting the photos, but hires him anyway. He gives Jack the impossible assignment of getting a photograph of the face of local gangster, Nick Palmer (Brian Donlevy), a man who notoriously does not want his picture taken. Jack easily scores the photo by appealing to Nick’s ego. Appreciating Jack’s nerve, Nick takes him under his wing and tells him that the head of the rival gang, Colton (Lawrence Tierney), is planning a job. He gives Jack the time and location. He easily gets the photo and brings it back to David. Colton gets wind of Jack and hires him to pull one over on Nick. Jack continues playing both gang members against each other, all while David and Ellen start becoming more and more skeptical as to how Jack keeps scoring these amazing photos. Eventually Jack gets in over his head.

This was such a great movie. I didn’t know what to expect from it and was so impressed by all the twists and turns that the plot took. I highly recommend this film to anyone who loves a good film noir.

#5 Shane (1953). I’m not a big westerns fan, but I watched this one because I’ve recently been on an Alan Ladd kick and I’d never seen what is probably his biggest, most well known role. Ladd plays the titular Shane, a drifter who arrives at a small town in Wyoming. Most of the town is comprised of homesteaders who moved west, taking advantage of the government’s offer to give free land to people wishing to move west of the Mississippi and set-up their own homes, farms, ranches, etc. Upon arriving in town, Shane encounters Mary and Joe Starrett (Jean Arthur and Van Heflin), a couple living off of the land they received from the government. Mary and Joe also have a young son, Joey (Brandon DeWilde) who immediately admires Shane. The main conflict of the film is a ruthless cattle baron wants to use force to push the Homesteaders off their viable land, so that he can take it over and grow his cattle empire.

This is such a beautiful film. Alan Ladd was great as the mysterious stranger who comes into town, helps out some of the folks, and leaves just as mysteriously as he came. His scenes with Joey are adorable and he’s great with Jean Arthur as well. Jack Palance was great as one of the cattle baron’s men, Jack Wilson, and he has a fun showdown with Ladd at the end of the film.

Honorable Mentions: Dragonwyck (1946), Enter the Dragon (1973), Larceny, Inc. (1942), Experiment Perilous (1944), and Deep Valley (1947).

CMBA Politics on Film Blogathon- “The Candidate” (1972)

On October 23, 2020October 24, 2020 By whimsicallyclassic (Kayla)In Blogathon, Favorite Classic Movies (Pre-1980)4 Comments

Unfortunately, politics have been around since the beginning of time. I absolutely cannot stand politics. I find today’s political climate very toxic and damaging to one’s mental health. But, I do like political-oriented stories if they’re presented in a historical context (e.g. All the President’s Men), or if the politics are presented in a fictional narrative, where there’s no blatant agenda or propaganda–just a basic story about someone running for an office or some other aspect of the political arena.

The Candidate, directed by Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer, Bad News Bears, Smile) depicts the fictional election of the 1972 California Senate seat within the US Senate. Peter Boyle plays Marvin Lucas, an election specialist who is tasked with finding a viable Democratic candidate for the California Senate seat in the US Senate. The incumbent, Republican Senator Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter aka Sally Field’s dad in TV’s Gidget), is extremely popular and seemingly is a shoo-in for re-election. He’s so popular in fact, that solid Democratic candidates are convinced that running against him is futile because it’s a given that they’ll lose.

After seeing an article about San Diego lawyer Bill McKay (Robert Redford) in the newspaper, Lucas decides that he is the perfect candidate to run against Jarmon. To sweeten the pot, McKay is also the son of former California Governor, John McKay (Melvyn Douglas). Hoping to cash-in on his connection to the former governor, Lucas visits McKay at his office and makes him a proposition: Because it’s a given that Jarmon will win, if McKay agrees to campaign for California Senate, he can mount whatever type of campaign he wants. Despite not particularly wanting to be Senator, McKay agrees because he feels that this will be a good opportunity to speak about about some of his pet causes like: ecology, civil rights, and legal aid.

McKay easily wins the nomination and mounts a grassroots campaign and his charisma and realism helps him quickly attract supporters. However, his campaigning isn’t doing enough and preliminary election projections show that McKay is not only going to lose the election, he’s going to be obliterated. Not wanting McKay to be embarrassed, Lucas informs him that they will need to mount a more serious, conventional campaign. McKay goes along Lucas’ plan.

McKay’s campaign begins to transform into a more typical political campaign. He is given pre-written answers to questions or is asked to give more standard answers that pander to the American public. His answers are full of buzzwords and other shallow phrases, designed to sound good, but mean absolutely nothing. McKay begins receiving criticism for seemingly drifting away from his ideals and turning into a more typical politician.

As McKay gets deeper and deeper into the election, he begins to question his integrity and how much he’s willing to compromise his ideals to win a campaign for an office that he wasn’t interested in winning in the first place. His dilemma comes to head during a debate with Jarmon.

Jarmon represents the celebrity candidate. He knows how to pander to his supporters. He knows how to appeal to his supporters with big, splashy galas and rallies. Jarmon knows what buzzwords to say, what empty phrases to use. He knows how to make promises to his supporters without actually making any promises at all. Jarmon interjects himself into situations (e.g. the forest fire in Malibu) to make him seem like he cares, but he doesn’t really. He says words like “Change” and “America” a lot.

McKay, on the other hand, is the naive, wide-eyed candidate. He’s the one who has no idea what he’s “supposed” to say, what his supporters want to hear. McKay has his laundry list of issues that he wants to fix and actually has ideas on how to fix these issues. He holds rallies to try and attract supporters. McKay says the wrong thing. He says the right thing. And of course, because it’s Robert Redford*, he attracts the young women to his camp because he’s attractive. Being eye-candy never hurt anyone’s campaign. (Honestly, it’s not often that attractive people run for any sort of office).

*For the record, in the never-ending “Paul Newman or Robert Redford?” debate, I am Team Redford all the way.

Despite his inexperience, McKay’s grassroots campaign gains traction. He is charismatic. McKay appeals to all facets of society: the unemployed, the minorities, everyone–not just the wealthy. He wants to fix widespread issues that are actually hurting the voters of the country–like joblessness and poverty. Corporations and taxes aren’t the point of his campaign. He wants to help the actual voters and the environment in which they live. As his supporter base grows, so does the size of his campaign–and before he knows it, McKay is running a bonafide political campaign.

I was on a Robert Redford kick a while back and found this film on HBO Max. I have since watched it three times and really enjoy it. In 1972, The Candidate was released as a satire of the American political system. But is this film really a satire?

Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter) schmoozes his supporters

Many of the situations presented in this campaign are still true today. The hypocrisy present in both major political parties is the same. The way in which the public responds to the different candidates is the same. The pandering and fake promises are the same. The mudslinging between the candidates is the same. While social media changes the medium in which information is spread, the way in which it persuades (or dissuades) is the same.

Everything is the same. The same tactics that were used in 1972 are used today in 2020.

I highly recommend watching The Candidate. While I’ve never run for office (and don’t plan on doing so), I feel that the way in the film depicts how a campaign is run, how the candidates are asked to sell-out their personal convictions in the name of winning, and how the political parties try to manipulate the voters into supporting them is still very timely today. This film would make a good companion piece to All the President’s Men. Aside from the Redford connection, this film can show what happens when someone in an important political office (e.g. THE PRESIDENT) sacrifices their integrity (if they had any) in the name of winning.