Joe’s Movie Club: Looking at Classic Films

It all started innocently enough… Mary was working late a few nights so I decided to put on my Criterion Collection copy of Sullivan’s Travels (1941.) This classic film stars Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake and was directed by Preston Sturges, who along with Ernst Lubitsch is one of my favorite directors from Hollywood’s Golden Era. If you’re not familiar with this film it’s about a movie director of comedies who wants to direct a serious film, specifically a  movie called Oh, Brother Where Art Thou. Now if that title sounds a bit familiar, that’s also the title of a 2000 movie from the Coen Brothers. If I may digress…

I did not enjoy the Coen Brother’s* Oh, Brother Where Art Thou and in the ending of the 1941 film, Sullivan himself gives up on the idea about making a film with that title when he realizes that comedies can lift the spirit of the people watching the film in a way that some serious films cannot. I wish that the Coen’s had come to the same conclusion because I didn’t like Oh Brother; my wife likes it and the Tomato people gave it a 89 rating, which just happens to be their same rating they gave Sullivan’s Travels that I happen to think is a superior film and critics agree with me. It’s is a thoroughly delightful film and is highly recommended. Right now, Amazon is selling the Criterion Collection edition for $19.95.

The highlight of the film for me is, of course, the Sturges direction and a script that’s filled with witty dialog, slapstick moments but can also be serious from time-to-time. (In Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, the aliens tell Woody, “We enjoy your films! Particularly the early, funny ones.” ) Veronica Lake sparkles in the role of a starlet who couldn’t make it in Hollywood. Ms. Lake only made seven films and interestingly teamed up with McCrea for her final film, a 1947 Western called Ramrod that I never heard until I began researching her career, All of which led me to…

The Criteriomn Collection edition of I Married a Witch (1942) that’s also for sale at Amazon for around twenty bucks. The stars are  Frederick March and Veronica Lake! For some reason, Hollywood casting directors loved pairing the diminutive (5 ft-2-in) Ms, Lake with tall co-stars like McCrea and March. This film was helmed by René Clair, a French director who didn’t  direct many Hollywood films and also directed one of my other favorites The Ghost Goes West (1935.)

Long before Elizabeth Montgomery wiggled her nose, Ms. Lake was absolutely radiant in this screwball comedy that co-stars Robert Benchley. Frederick March is not well knows for comedy or as a romantic lead but he’s pitch perfect as the improbably named politician Wally Wooley. The film is also notable for it’s special effects, especially for the time, which includes a flying car long before Marty and Doc. It’s a comedic romp for March who is about to be married to a young Susan Hayward and is bewitched by, what else, a witch and falls madly in love with her. Similar material is mined for Bell, Book and Candle with James Stewart and Kim Novak, a film I dearly love. And while I Married a Witch did it first, it also did it differently featuring an hysterical series of sequences when March is getting ready to marry Susan Hayward. Highly recommended as a laugh-out-loud comedy. All of which led me to…

Foreign Correspondent (1940) was always one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film and stars Joel McCrea—get my theme now?—and Lorraine Day and to keep the synergy going, co-staring Robert Benchley. I find it interesting that all of these films were made within a few years of one another. This film is a classic thriller and the first two-thirds of the film are Hitchcock at his best before he started making color films. The masterpiece that is Vertigo excepted but that is a very different film from these early thrillers such as Saboteur with Robert Cummings, another one of my favorite Hitchcock films.

There are so many iconic Hitchcock scenes in Foreign Correspondent like the extended scene when McCrea follows the baddies into a Windmill in Holland that showcases some amazing camera work by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rudolph Maté, one of six Oscar nominations the film received including Best Picture. Then there is the famous “umbrella assassination” scene that even today is a remarkable piece of direction and cinematography. The “disaster movie’ ending is remarkable achievement for its time; if you haven’t already seen the film, I don’t want to ruin it with a description. In short this is an clever and entertaining movie and while Joel McCrea is ostensibly its star, the real star is Alfred Hitchcock. The Criterion Collection edition of Foreign Correspondent is a three-disk set (with booklet) and is a bargain at twenty bucks from Amazon. If you are a Hitchcock fan and don’t already own a copy if this film, it’s a great deal.

I watched all of these films over three nights in a row and it was just a fantastic series showing the talents of all the different actors and directors. The Criterion transfers were stunning too. All three films are highly recommended and earn five popcorn kernels out of five.

*PS: After trying to watch The Hudsucker Proxy and re-watching Fargo I have been re-appraising my feelings about movies from The Coen Brothers. More in a future Joe’s Movie Club post.