Classic Hollywood: My Biased Recommendations

As many people are well aware, for the past several months Juan and I have undertaken a semi-formal classic film education. That being the case, we watch, on average, a new film from the classical period just about every day. Sometimes we squeeze in two, and on weekends we’ve been known to watch as many as eight. We really aren’t going about it randomly either. We have at hand the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and  Richard Maltby’s Hollywood Cinema, along with a growing collection of others. On my side, I must admit, most of them are (thus far) either about Judy Garland, or The Wizard of Oz, but what can you do? This leopard is far from changing his spots!

Thus far, we’ve canvassed from 1902’s Le Voyage Dans La Lune, to the present day, but we have stayed, at least recently, squarely in the 1930’s and 1940’s. A very good place to stay, if you ask me!

I was asked this morning, given that Juan and I have now, easily, watched at least a few hundred of the best films to ever come out of Hollywood, what I would recommend as films not to be missed. So, I created a list. It’s biased,  and my personal recommendations are, of course, coloured by my own taste and particularities. (Read that as Judy Garland is present a lot, but I actually tried to reign her in, honestly I did.) I’m also entirely aware of the fact that there are, what would seem to be, horrible omissions here. But, to place the list in context, I was asked what films I would recommend as a starting point for anyone who’s never watched that much of Classic Hollywood, and this list was the result. I am not an expert, far from it. For that you’d have to go to my friend Sean. I know it, I acknowledge it, I admit it; my film knowledge is far inferior to many others. Live with it; I do.

All that being said, here are the films that have really stuck out to me for one reason or another.

Obviously, The Wizard of Oz, (1939) is at the top of the list, but I assume any person vaguely familiar with Western culture, and breathing, will have seen the film. That being said, if you haven’t seen it since you were a child (for whatever horrible reason) pop it in to your DVD player (or YouTube or BitTorrent, or whatever) and give it another view. I love it as much today as when I was five. Honestly, maybe more, and I still find myself watching it at least once a month, if not more. Then again, working on replicating the ruby slippers provides an excellent excuse!

Beyond “Oz,” my recommendations, in no particularly order, are:

Laura (1944) It’s one of the (very) few “film noir” that I’ve honestly enjoyed. The murder of a beautiful woman who seems to enchant all those around her. Gene Tierney is fantastic, and having a queer eye when watching the film reveals more than the surface seems to suppose.

Gone With the Wind (1939) Anyone who hasn’t seen it, honestly, is crazy. Yes, it is long, but it is beautiful, and gripping, and utterly fantastic. The book (equally long, at 1,036 pages) is superb.

Casablanca (1942) Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in a story of true love and sacrifice, set against World War II. “Here’s looking at you kid!”

Roman Holiday (1953). The first American screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn, and one for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Besides, who can resist the story of a princess who just wants to be a regular young lady?

Citizen Kane (1942) Said by many to be the best film ever made. For its technical achievements, and use of innovative storytelling techniques, along with the use of a non-linear narrative, with multiple, unreliable, narrators, along with taking on in topic one of the most powerful men in America, Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, it’s worth your time to discover what all the fuss is about. It’s a wonder it even survives today, given all the pressure at the time to have the negative destroyed!

Now, Voyager (1942) Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale, evolves from a repressed spinster, who shrinks under the care of her dictatorial mother, to a strong, independent woman, not unlike Davis herself. Featuring Davis at her most iconic, it is a film not to be missed.

It Happened One Night (1934) With Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, this story of a spoiled socialite who runs away to get out from under her father’s thumb only to fall in love with a roguish reporter is THE romantic comedy. Every subsequent “boy meets girl” story begs, borrows, or steals from this one.

Rebecca (1940) Produced by David O Selznick, the man behind “Gone With the Wind,” at the same time as the colossus, it tells the dark story of a young woman (Joan Fontaine) who marries the ideal husband (Sir Laurence Olivier) only to find herself in the constant shadow of his dead wife, Rebecca.

Rope (1948) Hitchcock’s tale of two young gay men who, plan and execute, the perfect crime. Throwing a huge dinner party, while the body lays in the centre of the room. Shot in lavish Technicolor, and featuring James Stewart, the film is a technical triumph, appearing to be shot with a minimum of cuts, giving one a lavish sense of space, in lush colours, at odds with the context of the film.

Mildred Pierce (1945) Joan Crawford as a strong-willed entrepreneur determined to realise the American dream for herself, and her daughter, at any cost.

Sunset Boulevard (1950) A washed out movie actress (Gloria Swanson) attempts to grasp at a young film writer who accidentally ends up entrapped in her web, in a futile attempt to reclaim her former glory, with tragic consequences.

I Could Go On Singing (Also known as The Lonely Stage in the UK) (1963) Judy Garland’s final film, in which she plays a singer/actress, not unlike herself, Jenny Bowman, who comes to England in search of the family she left so many years before. Garland helped co-star Dirk Bogarde write several scenes in the film, giving, perhaps a glimpse, of how she truly felt about her life, and her legend.

Psycho (1960) Three words, Bloody shower scene, or, “rheent, rheent, rheent”

A Star is Born (1954) Judy Garland and James Mason star as the fading elder leading man helping the young actress achieve stardom as his own life becomes dark indeed. While this film is beautiful (despite the fact that Jack Warner hacked it to pieces after it’s completion, complaining it was “too long”), it is, I find, difficult to watch, yet worth it all the same.

For those particularly interested in Classic Hollywood, I recommend Juan’s blog, Amateur Film Studies, along with The Golden Age of Hollywood website and forum. If you have any interest in Hollywood costuming, you may also enjoy my other blog, The Ruby Slippers Project, in which I chronicle my efforts at recreating Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz

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15 Works of Literature That Stay With You…

A few days ago, I received the following challenge from a good friend:

List 15 books you’ve read that will always stick with you — list the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes. Don’t take too long to think about it.

So, here is the list I created. They, largely, are not in any order, although the first few are of particular importance to me:

1. Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The – L. Frank Baum – Not only did I read this story when I was, maybe, 4 years old, but considering the impact the movie version, along with the retelling Wicked have had on my life, it simply must top the list.

2. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf – I’ll readily admit, when I first read it, at 15, I had no clue what I was reading, but I knew it was beautiful. I have since reread it, several times, and find it to be the most accurate portrayal of what it means to simply be alive in print.

3. Picture of Dorian Gray, The– Oscar Wilde – I first read it around the same time I first attempted Mrs. Dalloway. I really don’t remember, specifically, why I picked it up. I think I may have heard tell of its “perversions” and wanted to see for myself. Yet, I found something so much richer, about the very nature of truth and authenticity, and the costs of avoiding it.

4. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen – It was early high school, there was an ice storm and the power went out. As everyone else piled into the car to get across town to watch a big basketball game on television, I sat with a few candles reading about truths, universally acknowledged.

5. Midsummer Night’s Dream, A – William Shakespeare – Spring, Sophomore year at Ball State, the book that made me love Shakespeare. After suffering ill-teachings of Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, and Macbeth in high school, I found myself, halfway through Midsummer, laughing out loud. In that moment, I fell in love with Shakespeare.

6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling– I didn’t want to like it, I really didn’t want to like it! I resisted reading it for a very long time, even as everyone else who read took it in. Then I read it, I loved it, and somehow, years later, I found myself outside Borders, at midnight, buying the 7th book!

7. Revolutionary Road– Richard Yates – This is a more recent read for me (before the movie came out), but, it really does impress upon you the importance of making the right choices, and living the life you truly wish to live.

8. Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare. The critical interest in sexuality in the Renaissance had to start somewhere! Although, I will admit my personal interest is slightly broader than just the Renaissance, but encompasses more how sexuality, specifically homosexuality is found in literature in general.

9. Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia – Marya Hornbacher – I carried this book around a lot in high school and reread passages of it routinely. In the clutches of an eating disorder myself at the time, I found some twisted understanding in it.

10. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury – For a person who loves books, few books can be more genuinely frightening than this, especially as we see schools banning it; schools banning a book about book banning… only in America.

11. Capitalism and Freedom– Milton Friedman – Absolutely changed the way I look at the world economy, and my bank account.

12. Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography-Christine Jorgensen – I give more credit than anything to those people in the world who have the courage to say, “This is who I am; deal with it!”

13. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell– The film may be a Hollywood classic, but the seldom read book (if only because of it’s girth at 1,036 pages), is a classic in itself; by the end of a single read, my copy was in tatters.

14. Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger – The first time I read it, I loved Holden, I could really identify with him. I was about 16 at the time. The second time I read it, I hated Holden, and thought he was an immature bastard. Perhaps another read is in order?

15. Woman in White, The – Wilkie Collins – One of the best early sensation novels. A novel that can honestly keep me gripped for north of 700 pages, deserves a mention!

I challenge anyone and everyone who reads this to create their own list, I find it interesting to see the books people consider so very special. Who knows, it might give someone else an idea of something to read!

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