My sister Liz sent me an e-mail telling me about a feature that came with the latest special DVD edition of Gone With the Wind (which she got for Christmas) that celebrated the incredible number of classic movies that were released in 1939, the year GWTW came out. It was a banner year for Hollywood, no doubt about it. You can find at least one fairly comprehensive list from that year at this site. Liz wondered if I might like to comment on some of these films, and I think I'll take her up on that (after all, I'm always looking for regular features to fill out the blog). I think I'll start by listing the Top Ten films, according to me, for that august year; then over the coming weeks, I'll periodically offer some comments on the indvidual titles. So here, in order of my preference, are my favorite films of arguably the greatest year in Hollywood's history (I'm sticking to American films in this ranking, but might write up a few of the foreign releases as I go along):1. Only Angels Have Wings (directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur)
2. Destry Rides Again (George Marshall; Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich)
3. Stagecoach (John Ford; John Wayne, Claire Trevor)
4. Midnight (Mitchell Leisen; Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore)
5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra; Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur)
6. Gunga Din (George Stevens; Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.)
7. The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh; Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart)
8. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch; Greta Garbo, Melvin Douglas)
9. You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (G. Marshall, E. Cline & E. Sedgwick; W.C. Fields)
10. Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin; Ginger Rogers, David Niven)
If you check the list at the link above, you'll realize how hard it was to whittle this down to ten. Feel free to take issue with my selections in the comments, but these are the ones I'm going to write about, so stay tuned.
3 comments:
Dr John,
Thanks for taking up my suggestion =)In some ways I can figure out why you didn't put Gone With the Wind or Wizard of Oz (too commercial, sentimental, or over hyped) but don't know why you chose some of the other.. instead of movies like The Women, Goodbye Mr Chips, or even the Hunchback of Notre Dame? I understand this is your list but there were so many good movies (even I saw some of them)... anyway thanks again for taking up the challenge and am looking forward to seeing what you have to say about these movies (and who says you only have to focus on these 10?)
Lil' Sis
Lil Sis,
Well, I like a lot of those other movies too-- but I figure it'll be easier to focus on those that are real favorites, and that I've seen a bunch of times (by the same token, I've never seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Goodbye Mr. Chips, so don't really have anything to say about them). This post was more to set up the series, so I may comment on some of the others too as I go along. Thanks for the suggestion.
Dr. John
Lil' Sis
Ok I can accept that- but maybe you could go out and actually see the ones you've never seen - for such a movie aficionado I thought you would jump at that chance =)
Lil' Sis
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