What classics did you see last week ? (9Feb - 15 Feb 2020)
Feb 19, 2020 6:03:02 GMT
teleadm, wmcclain, and 3 more like this
Post by ellynmacg on Feb 19, 2020 6:03:02 GMT
ONE WAY PASSAGE.
Back in the day when nobody thought to warn "Spoiler Alert!" (Though to be fair, you won't get very far into the movie--which runs for only 67 minutes anyway--before you find out the secrets the protagonists are keeping from each other.)
I really love this movie from 1932 (two years before the Motion Picture Code went into effect). Not a wasted minute in its very brief (see above) running time, and the hero and heroine are so appealing! To adapt a well-known quotation: "They had faces then." I might add: unique faces. Nobody else looked like Kay Francis, a clothes-horse with a heart--here portraying Joan Ames, a sweet-tempered socialite. Nobody else looked like William Powell, a cringing, penny-ante villain of the Silent Era who evolved with sound into an urbane, wisecracking hero. And the supporting players had distinctive faces, too: Aline MacMahon and Frank McHugh, two of Warner Bros.' most engaging stock players, and soon to appear in some of the studio's backstage musicals. The only one with a fairly standard-issue face is Warren Hymer, as Steve Burke, the plainclothes cop charged with escorting his captive, Dan Hardesty (William Powell) back to the States to face a death sentence. But then, his character shouldn't look memorable, so it makes sense.
The bittersweet, sentimental--without being schmaltzy--ending had me in tears. Recalling a vow of eternal love exchanged by Ames and Hardesty, the last scene employed a supernatural touch which could have worked well, many years in the future, for an episode of the original series of The Twilight Zone. Highly recommended.
Back in the day when nobody thought to warn "Spoiler Alert!" (Though to be fair, you won't get very far into the movie--which runs for only 67 minutes anyway--before you find out the secrets the protagonists are keeping from each other.)
I really love this movie from 1932 (two years before the Motion Picture Code went into effect). Not a wasted minute in its very brief (see above) running time, and the hero and heroine are so appealing! To adapt a well-known quotation: "They had faces then." I might add: unique faces. Nobody else looked like Kay Francis, a clothes-horse with a heart--here portraying Joan Ames, a sweet-tempered socialite. Nobody else looked like William Powell, a cringing, penny-ante villain of the Silent Era who evolved with sound into an urbane, wisecracking hero. And the supporting players had distinctive faces, too: Aline MacMahon and Frank McHugh, two of Warner Bros.' most engaging stock players, and soon to appear in some of the studio's backstage musicals. The only one with a fairly standard-issue face is Warren Hymer, as Steve Burke, the plainclothes cop charged with escorting his captive, Dan Hardesty (William Powell) back to the States to face a death sentence. But then, his character shouldn't look memorable, so it makes sense.
The bittersweet, sentimental--without being schmaltzy--ending had me in tears. Recalling a vow of eternal love exchanged by Ames and Hardesty, the last scene employed a supernatural touch which could have worked well, many years in the future, for an episode of the original series of The Twilight Zone. Highly recommended.