Top 10:
Carnival in Flanders*
Dodsworth
Fury
The Ghost Goes West*
The Great Zigfield
the Green Pastures
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Romeo and Juliet
The Story of Louis Pasteur
These Three
Winterset

Others:
My Man Godfrey
Swing Time

Modern Times is not included in the book, sadly.

Thanks for adding these. It helps add some perspective on the early movies.

The Life of Emile Zola - If all you ever knew about Emile Zola was what you saw in this movie, you might think he was merely a bystander hardly worthy of the focus of a biopic. From what I knew about him going into this, he could've as easily been a fictional character. I mean, I'm not really up on my 19th century French writers/activists. But then, the story hit a soft spot for me: a little guy takes on the powers that be. A large portion of the film centers on the Dreyfus affair, in which a French army officer is set up and convicted for treason. Zola disappears for awhile, as the army does their corrupt thing. We know Dreyfus is innocent because we've seen the machinations, but Zola eventually gets involved, writes a piece accusing the government of unlawfully jailing an innocent man, and goes to court for his libelous remarks. The centerpiece of the film is an extended piece surrounding his trial, in which he oddly sits silent while a circus erupts around him. It may be true to life, but it's odd to see the subject reduced to set decoration while grand speeches are made by lawyers, judges, and witnesses. (Zola at least gets to make his own impassioned speech to the jury at the end of the trial.) I mention all this because it's an odd choice in a biopic to not focus on the guy whose name is in the title of the film. His early life as a struggling writer is glossed over, and we don't get to know him very well, and the controversial aspects of his activism aren't so shocking today. The French were just really uptight. All this sounds like I might have hated the film, but actually the opposite is true. I liked it quite a bit. Odd choices aside, this is an interesting, well-written, well-acted, and sometimes thrilling examination of intellectualism in a conservative society, and the lengths to which those in power can go to cover up the truth including abuse of power and spread of propaganda to keep people angry and in the dark. It's early Hollywood liberalism at it's finest. That's why I liked it.

Oh shit moment: I fear the wrath of cameltoe after that intellectualism comment.

Did it deserve to win?: Good movie, and the type the Academy has always liked, but it's hardly a film people still talk about today. Snow White and A Day at the Races are greater popular entertainments from the same year, and Renoir's Grand Illusion is a greater artistic achievement. Oh, here we go: Heidi starring Shirley Temple. There's your winner.

(out of 5)

J'accuse!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington from 1939 comes on TCM on Thursday. Lost to Gone With the Wind for Best Pic, but Mr. Smith is one of my favorite films of all time. The story is still relevant.

I found parts of Emile Zola still relevant. Mr. Smith is also available via Netflix streaming. Gonna watch it either immediately before or after GWTW.

Gagree Was assigned this film for a government class in college. It is greatness!

You Can't Take It with You - This movie was a friggin' riot. It's standard stuff: eccentric middle-class family teaches uptight, stiff, rich pricks how to live, laugh, and love a little...again. Sounds puke-inducing, I know, but it knows that we know where it's going so it doesn't try to be profound. It simply gives us a good time with an assload of wackiness. We still get the same story 8-9 times a year these days, except it usually involves a city dude/chick who gets stuck in a small town where you can't even get a decent caramel macchiato, but eventually learns that small town values and traditions like cornhole aren't so bad after all. A montage featuring embarrassing misadventures with farm equipment is usually included too. We don't get any of that here. There's no hidden nobility in this family. They just do what they want, which happens to be nutty things. There's explosions in the basement, random jamborees, and you never know when a Ruskie will show up for dinner and some revolution. It gets very screwball at times, and I'll admit I laughed out loud often. No surprises, but a fun ride.

Did it deserve to win?: I'm gonna say yeah. I can certainly understand how audiences enjoyed this film in its day. The Depression was nearly 10 years old, and this film has that "what the fuck? don't worry about money and instead enjoy life" message. That was enough for then, and it still holds up now.

(out of 5)

Jean Arthur had a heck of a run in the late 30s. She was solid in You Can't Take It With You. I watched it a few weeks ago, and have seen it a few times. Solid review. Good movie.

I now realize what a run Frank Capra had in the 30s. 3 directing Oscars and 2 BPs. He's like the Hilary Swank of his time.

They were all the uplifting kind.

He made the most positive, hopeful movies all during the depression and WWII. His style was perfect for the era. Right place, right time. His kind of films couldn't be made in the 60s and 70s.

They make them now, but they are all Pixar/Disney. Popular character hits rock bottom and has an AHA! moment and makes his way back to the top. Then there is a big group happy ending.

with full release?

Disney has employed Brittany and Miley.

NY Times Top 10:
Camille*
Captains Courageous
The Good Earth
I Met Him in Paris*
The Life of Emile Zola
Lost Horizon
Make Way for Tomorrow
Stage Door
A Star is Born
They Won't Forget

Others in the book:
The Awful Truth
You Only Live Once
Dead End
Harvest
Mayerling

The book lists Snow White and Grand Illusion as 1938 and does not list A Day at the Races.

Top 10:
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Citadel
Four Daughters
The Lady Vanishes
A Man to Remember*
Pygmalion
A Slight Case of Murder
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Three Comrades
To the Victor

Others:
Bringing Up Baby
Grand Illusion

You Can't Take it With You was not in their original top 10 nor the book itself. Robin Hood is one of my all-time favorite movies. With those, Grand Illusion, Snow White, and the Lady Vanishes, that's a hell of a year.

Maybe at the end of all this we can look back on what the best year for movies was?

1939, 1940, and 1941 were all silly good.

Bringing Up Baby is kind of a beating to watch. Two hall of fame actors, but good gravy they are full of nervous energy. But young Kate Hepburn ain't too bad.

1939 is known as perhaps the best year ever, but I'll be the judge of that.

So howsabout at the end of each decade, you name the best year. Then we'll make a braket and seed them and open it up for voting. That'll drive up registration metrics.

Wow. I was thinking about a poll, but you're clearly thinking big time. somey, make this man a mod.

This shit is getting complicated. Someone just tell me what I'm supposed to que up on Netflix.

Just look up Joel Schumacher. He makes the kind of movies you love.

What about Michael Bay?

Check out William Higgins. He makes the kind you like.

His movies are too arty for gam.

Get all the Broadway Melody movies. Together, they put Kieslowski to shame.

Well now I am a big fan of The Music Man...

Trouble, that starts with t

we got trouble!
right here in river city!
trouble that's starts with a t
that rhymes with p
and that stands for POOL!

Gone with the Wind - Ok, who knew this movie was 4 hours long, and why didn't you tell me? Had I known this, I would've never undertaken this undertaking. Seriously, 4 hours? Of course, 14 minutes of that was overture, intermission, and exit music. I believe the people responsible for those things were the original art fags. It takes a truly pretentious fucknut to think that his work is so important that it requires the same score we hear throughout the movie to play over a stationary title card for a 5 minute chunk. Fuck that guy AND his stenographer.

Anyway, the movie.

I always resisted this movie growing up. I just never appealed to me. It looked boring as hell. It was also considered THE greatest movie ever when I was a kid. When a discussion of the all-time greats took place anywhere, GWTW was the standard by which all others were measured. Sounded like faggotry to me. Funnily, when the Internet assimilated us all, we started talking about different movies. Now there was a place to discuss and celebrate cult films (without having to put on fishnets or throw toast) and talk of GWTW faded into the background. Still highly regarded, it was no longer the #1 movie to jerk off to, and it exists now as a classic from a long time ago that our moms and grandmothers loved.

So it's got that going for it, which is nice. It's still a big impressive epic, the cinematography is amazing even for today, and people in 1939 were rightfully thrilled by what they saw on screen. Of course, it had several re-releases over the years, and people still went to see it again and again, so it wasn't just the prettiness of the pictures that captured everyone's imaginations. There's also that whole romance angle that women ate up. This was my mother's favorite movie. She saw it like 4 times during the re-releases and who knows how many times on TV, cable, and video. I never bothered to ask why she loved it so much, but I'm guessing it's the epic romance. Maybe the feminist angle too, I suppose. Scarlett O'Hara was a cunt, for sure, but she was also crafty and manipulative. For a society portrayed as traditional, where reputation was everything, she sure as hell played with hearts and trampled on others to get what she wanted. The movie is really about this spoiled brat getting her comeuppance, which, of course, comes from the hands of Legendary Badass Clark Gable. Forget the romance stuff. My boner popped whenever he was on screen because the dude is just that awesome. He sees through everyone's bullshit, including yours. I can only dream of reaching his level of cool smarm. But seriously, even though the movie is about Scarlett, Rhett controls the story. He knows what she's up to and plays his own game until it's time to make his move on her. He does all he can, but she's never appreciative of him, and ultimately he denies her what she finally realizes she wants most: him. When he finally tells her he doesn't give a damn, it's an amazing moment. We should all have such balls in front of a hot chick.

I enjoyed the movie overall. After an annoying first hour (yeah we get it, the South is the greatest place on Earth), I really got into it as her world fell apart and she started to rebuild. But then, closer to end it started to drag for me some more. The happy slaves haven't aged so well either. Precious, er, I mean Mammy was a complete, realistic character, but Prissy was an embarrassing cartoon. What I don't understand is the unending love for this movie. Yes, it's good. Very good, even. And I'm still thinking about it after it has finished, but I don't get why this movie is at the top of the list among the greatest films of all time. Was it the epic scope? The effects? The story? The color cinematography? It's a combination, of course. I'm glad I finally sat through it, though, even if it didn't live up to the hype.

Did it deserve to win?: This is gonna take a full discussion. 1939 is known as perhaps the greatest year in film history. There are probably a half dozen films that would've been good winners including The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and those are just among the popular ones. It's too tough to call. I admired a lot about this film, even if I wasn't whole-heartedly humping this hog by the end. I'll open this up to the forum and let the popular decision dictate.

(out of 5)

Longest. post. ever. Fuckin' ponderous, man.

In her day, Olivia de Havilland as Melanie was a real peach too. I can't believe both her and Scarlett pined for that faggot, Ashley. Good assessment of Clark Gable. I wish I were more like him.

Ashley was a putz, but he was the best choice for what was available to them. That he married his cousin is a huge strike against him, though.

Some of the huge sweeping shots make it hard to believe that movie was from 70 years ago. No cgi crowds there.

Rebecca - This was Alfred Hitchcock's first Hollywood film, and also the only one of his to win Best Picture. Oddly, it's also one of his most overlooked. Ask the average person to name 10 Hitchcock films and they'll never include this one. That's too bad. It's damn good. It's a nice suspense thriller that slowly unfolds, reveals its mysteries, and twists on you two or three times. Laurence of Olivier is a rich Brit with a huge home estate named Manderley. His wife, Rebecca, has recently died and he doesn't like to be reminded of anything about her. He meets a young naive middle-class girl played by Joan Fontaine (Hot), marries her, and brings her back to Manderley where she learns how the memory of Rebecca still looms over the place. I liked how Rebecca was never seen. No pictures or flashbacks, just talk of her. We all know now that there's more mystery to what you can't see, but Hitchcock understood that before it was cool to do so. If they remade this today, there'd be some hot starlet cast as Rebecca who'd get a 10-minute flashback and have her face on every promotional poster and commercial, eliminating all the mystery that this movie revels in. I also liked that Joan Fontaine's character had no name. She's just known as The 2nd Mrs. DeWinter. I just like that a name wasn't even necessary. Dunno why. Oh, and it had a great villainess. Mrs. Danvers, you're a cunt. I read something about lesbian undertones with her character. I guess I can see it, but they had to be really careful with that. They already had to make a change from the original novel due to codes that wouldn't allow murderers to go unpunished in movies, so you can understand that chick-on-chick action would've been a hard sell. Of course, now I wonder how the full mouth kissing between two dudes in Wings got by the censors, but maybe that's because their hands were in the right places.

Did it deserve to win?: You can make a pretty kickass argument that The Philadelphia Story, The Grapes of Wrath, or even my favorite, His Girl Friday, deserved it more, but I'm not gonna do it. This was among the best in a good year and that's fine with me. It's a bigger crime that Hitchcock never won a proper Oscar (John Ford won Director that year for Grapes of Wrath), so bitch about that instead.

(out of 5)

The Grapes of Wrath was great. Henry Fonda was brilliant in that. I've seen The Philadelphia Story and thought is was just meh.

Haven't seen Grapes of Wrath all the way through, but from what I've seen, yeah Henry Fonda was amazing.

Oh, and I realize I've called a woman character in the last 2 reviews a cunt, but only Mrs. Danvers really deserves the title. I'd like to downgrade Scarlett O'Hara to a bitch.

That little two timing whore is more of a slunt.

Gone with the Wind is a freaking beating. I'd rather watch Crash 5 times than sit through that again.

That's some fires of hell hate right there.

You would not.