Saturday, May 23, 2009

Hilary_duff_spicy





A Possible Cure for Depression-Era Blues

In 1933 audience woes were distracted (pleasantly) by visages of scantily clad chorines in The Gold Diggers of 1933. Ginger Rogers is seen here about as scantily clad as can be from the opening number We're in the Money (ere-we, in-hay the oney-me).


In the LA area, 1933 optimism was fueled by optimistic donuts.

I found this in an old movie program and it made me smile. I suspect we could use some optimistic donuts today, as well.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Fifty Years and Fifty Films

Le scarabée d'or (1907)

My lofty goal for the next six months is to watch 50 different films and comment about them here. This initial list may change, in particular with regard to some of the older films this is subject to their availability on DVD. I also doubt the films will be viewed in chronological order.

Some of the films on this list of 50 are genuine Hollywood classics and well known to most people. That said, as much as I love them, you will not find The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, The Women or a billion other films on this list. I wanted to avoid some of the more obvious classic choices and to explore some films I've not seen as well as revisit a few very old and dear friends. I've seen roughly half of them previously. Most of those prior viewings were quite some years back, so the films will be nearly new again. A few are old and dear favorites and I simply could not imagine not listing them, Sunset Blvd, for example. I've sprinkled in a few foreign films, and really should have added more of them. Maybe save that for another posting reserved for all the foreign films I've never managed to watch (shame on me).

Some of the films on the list present the opportunity to view some very early screen debuts of later greats. A few titles I am not sure I will be able to view. I'm going to ask around for those, we'll just have to see how it plays.

tba - 1900
tba - 1901
President McKinley Inauguration Footage 1902
The Great Train Robbery 1903
The Mermaid 1904
The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog 1905
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces 1906
The Golden Beetle 1907
The Thieving Hand 1908
A Corner in Wheat 1909
Frankenstein 1910
The Lonedale Operator 1911
The Musketeers of Pig Alley 1912
The Perils of Pauline 1914
A Fool There Was 1915
Gretchen the Greenhorn 1916
The Poor Little Rich Girl 1917
The Cook 1918
The Roaring Road 1919
The Last of the Mohicans 1920
The Affairs of Anatol 1921
Flloish Wives 1922
A Woman of Paris 1923
Aelita Queen of Mars 1924
The Goose Woman/The Eagle 1925
The Winning of Barbara Worth 1926
The Cat and the Canary 1927
Lonesome 1928
A Cottage on Dartmoor 1929
City Girl 1930
The Millionaire 1931
The Mummy 1932
Footlight Parade 1933
Crime Without Passion 1934
Captain Blood 1935
Sabotage 1936
The Prisoner of Zenda 1937
Holiday 1938
The Women 1939
The Letter 1940
The Devil and Miss Jones 1941
Random Harvest 1942
Destination Tokyo 1943
The Uninvited 1944
The Picture of Dorian Gray 1945
The Razor's Edge 1946
Kiss of Death 1947
Sudden Fear 1948
Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949
Sunset Blvd. 1950
L'éclipse du soleil en pleine lune (1907)