Here Comes the Navy (1934)

 

This film is an absolute time capsule of disasters. Most of it takes place aboard the USS Arizona, seven years before it would sink in the attack on Pearl Harbor. We see a Navy zeppelin three years before the Hindenburg disaster. James Cagney at one point puts on blackface to sneak off of the ship before society realized how problematic that was - though his black shipmates definitely don't seem pleased. Then there are the smaller (by comparison) issues of toxic masculinity with a touch of homophobia.

Cagney's character joins the Navy because he wants to fight an officer he runs into while working in Seattle. Then, of course, he falls for the guy's sister. Despite being the protagonist and saving the day a couple times, Cagney's character has few redeeming qualities and is really just a horrible human being.

20 to go...

State Fair (1933)

 

I'm continually shocked and amused by pre-Hays Code films. Most of the plot here revolves around the sweethearts the brother and sister each meet while the family is at the fair for a week. The brother quickly starts sleeping with the trapeze artist he meets at the fair, only to be confused that she won't agree to marry him. Meanwhile the daughter falls for a guy she randomly gets paired with on the roller coaster. While their relationship is more chaste, she hesitates on his offer of marriage when he admits he's slept with lots of girls before. There's nothing explicit, of course, but after the Hays Code everything would have to be much more ambiguous or carry more consequences.

All this while their ma and pa are willing awards for their pickles, minced meat, and prized hog. The film moves at a fairly modern pace and isn't a bad watch.

21 to go...

Smilin' Through (1932)

 

Given the title Smilin' Through, I was expecting a lighthearted romanic comedy or romp of some sort. That is definitely NOT how I would describe this film. It's more of a dark romance with tales of past heartbreak and a patriarch struggling to forgive a son for the sins of his father. The title comes from a song his dead fiancee sang the night before their wedding, a wedding which, we later learn, saw her killed at the altar by a jilted former boyfriend.

It's pretty solid as I did see both points of view in the crucial conflict in the story. A lifelong bachelor holds on to the memory of the love of his life. 30 years after her death, he adopts her 5-year-old niece after her parents die. Seventeen years after that, the girl falls for the son of the man who killed her aunt, all without knowing the details of her adopted father / uncle's past loss.

22 to go...

Five Star Final (1931)

 

This is a very dark film that holds up remarkably well and shows how little has changed in the world of tabloid journalism and sensationalism. In order to sell more papers Edward G. Robinson's character is charged with following up on an old story of a woman who killed her boss twenty years earlier for refusing to marry her after getting her pregnant. The daughter born soon after the murder is now about to get married herself and has no idea about her origins or her mother's dark past. The newspaper shining a light on this family's dirty laundry has tragic consequences. I couldn't help but think of Princess Diana's death in 1997 while fleeing paparazzi.

Great direction by Mervyn LeRoy and a film that includes the iconic faces of Robinson and Boris Karloff.

23 to go...

The Big House (1930)

 

A bit uneven, but this was actually a pretty darned good movie. It focuses on three cell mates serving time in a prison of 3000 inmates. One is the thick-skulled brute, one is the charming thief, and one is the new guy in for vehicular manslaughter. They are played by Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, and Robert Montgomery, respectively, whom all had very successful careers before and after this film, though this film does come at different points in their careers. All three were Oscar-nominated at one point or another, including Beery for this film.

Surprisingly nuanced for just an 87-minute film, it's one I'm surprised wasn't based on a novel. One that could definitely be updated and remade.

24 to go...

Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)

 

I went into this one with incredibly low expectations as it's a sort of follow-up to the 1929 film The Broadway Melody which I consider the worst best picture winner ever. So while this is completely forgettable, it actually wasn't too bad at all and could be reworked into a delightful high school musical.

We follow a newspaper man whose boss is forcing him to chase the 30s equivalent of clickbait and a girl from Albany who wants to make it big on Broadway. There's a hotshot stage director whom she went to high school with, but he tries to send her home to protect her from the industry. Meanwhile the reporter enjoys targeting the director for perceived scandals to do with his fundraising.

While the plot may be charming enough, the musical numbers are just flat boring.

25 to go...

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

This one mostly won me over in spite of myself. Much of the humor doesn't hold up, but several jokes did and I actually laughed out loud multiple times.

The story is simple enough. A British butler named Ruggles is won in a poker game by a rich American couple. The wife is prim and proper while the husband is a good ol' boy who just wants to drink and carry on with his friends. It's a fish-out-of-water story when Ruggles travels with his new employers to Washington state.

It definitely feels dated, but a pretty good film all things considered.

26 to go...