When it comes to Westerns, there are two figures who loom larger over the genre than the mesas in Monument Valley: John Wayne and John Ford. Wayne and his mannerisms are synonymous with the genre, while Ford contributed more to the directorial aspects of Westerns than any other director in history. Interestingly, both can trace back to one movie as the start of the most important phases of their careers. Ford has made dozens of silent Westerns during the 1920s, most of which were B-pictures and now lost, but as of 1939 it had be 13 years since Ford dabbled in the genre, making just about ever other kind of movie before making Stagecoach, in which he cast Wayne in prominent role. Wayne had worked with Ford six other times before during the 20s, and had continued to make Westerns into the 30s, but they were all of the low-budget variety and Wayne was far from a star. All that changed with Stagecoach however, Wayne was now taken seriously as an actor and launched into stardom. After making the film, Ford found a renewed love for Westerns and went on to make dozens more, including some of the best the genre has to offer, including The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Rio Grande, all with Wayne. In Stagecoach, Wayne plays a fugitive on the run who is captured by a Marshall (George Bancroft) escorting a stagecoach from Arizona to New Mexico. Wayne is forced to ride along with the passengers of the coach, which include people from various stations and situations. including Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt, and Donald Meek. The best parts of Stagecoach are the interactions that these characters have in the close confines of the coach, as each character is fleshed and their backgrounds are revealed. Of course there are sweeping vistas and blazing shootouts, but it is these personal stories and the rawness of their human emotions that take Stagecoach from surface popcorn entertainment to a truly great movie. Stagecoach isn't just notable because of it's impact on their careers however, it is also an outstanding film that stands up with the best Westerns ever made.
Throughout the 1930s and into the 40s, the top of the box office charts were dominated by romantic comedies, particularly of the screwball, battle-of-the-sexes variety. Audiences were understandably enthralled by watching beautiful movie stars who make falling in love look like the most fun, awkward, and humorous thing a civilized person could do. One of the first movies to take advantage of this fascination (as well as one of the last to take advantage of no production code) was It Happened One Night, which was not only a huge hit at the box office, (finishing forth for 1934) but it was also a critical success that gave legitimacy to a genre that was considered decidedly low entertainment up to that point. The main attraction of the movie for audiences were it's two stars: Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. Gable was a rising star very popular was fans, while Colbert was one of, if not the top leading lady at the time. In It Happened One Night, Gable plays Peter Warne, a street-smart, wise-cracking reporter looking for a big story to get him back in the good graces of his editor (Charles C. Wilson) when he meets Colbert's Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who married against her father's wishes, and has now run away in rebellion. Peter offers to help her find her way back to her new husband (Jameson Thomas) if she will give him an exclusive story, which she accepts. In order to not attract attention, the pair travel by bus, hitchhiking, and foot through rural America in the style of a classic road story, moving from one humorous situation to the next along the journey. This part of the movie gives a beautiful glimpse into America at that time outside of the big cities, which was rare for the time. As they journey, Peter teaches (or attempts to teach) the sheltered Ellie about the ways of the common American, from hitchhiking, to scavenging food, and making a make-shift bed out of straw, while Ellie in turn enjoys taking the pompous Mark down a few pegs whenever she can. Naturally, when two movie stars share a screen for so long, they fall in love, which complicates things for Ellie, of course it all works out in the end, but not without the expected misunderstanding and hi-jinks. Though Gable and Colbert were the big draw for audience coming to see It Happened One Night, they left the theater impressed by the young director who had so deftly guided the film: Frank Capra. Critics also lauded Capra, awarding him with the Academy Award for Best Director (the first of six such nominations for him, three of which he won) while also giving Gable Best Actor, Colbert Best Actress, screenwriter Robert Riskin Best Screenplay, and the movie itself Best Picture, a clean sweep of all the major awards. Not bad for "low entertainment."
Despite the how popular and well regarded they may be today, many movies, actors, and filmmakers weren't quite as highly regarded in their own time as many today might think. Looking back, we can appreciate films as brilliant works of movie making, but at the time many of them weren't the critical, and particularly the financial successes that you'd expect of a high caliber film. One of the most famous examples of this is also one of the most inexplicable; Bringing Up Baby had all the ingredients of a box office hit (two big stars, a premier director), but it failed to make back its budget, which had repercussions for several member of the production. The fact that it wasn't even more of a hit is even more surprising because of just how great, and hilarious the movie is. Cary Grant plays a mild-mannered paleontologist David Huxley who is trying to get the funding to complete his assembly of a brontosaurus, of which he is one bone short. In addition David is a day away from his marriage to his stuff assistant Alice (Virginia Walker). While trying to persuade the rich Elizabeth Random (May Robson) to support his project, he encounters the zany Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn), who through various humorous events, ruins David's chances of getting the money. However, it also turns out she is Random's niece, and she offers to help David get the money in exchange for his help delivering a leopard called Baby to her Aunt. However, things get more complicated when Susan falls in love with David, and begins to contrive to keep him around and delay his marriage to Alice. One of her attempts includes allowing Baby to escape and enlisting David to catch him, which makes up the second half of the movie. Bringing Up Baby throws non-stop hilarity at the audience, with one ridicules situation following another. The leads are on the top of their comedic game, especially Grant who slowly transforms from the shy and awkward to completely manic and unhinged because of Susan's machinations. The rhythm of the dialogue is directed to perfection by Hawks, as is the significant amount of physical comedy, something he mastered several years earlier with Twentieth Century. After its struggles at the box, Hawks was let go from his contract at RKO and Hepburn was considered box office poison and struggled to find work until 1940's The Philadelphia Story relaunched her career. Grant, on the other hand, emerged unscathed and was still on the rise in his career. Luckily for modern audiences, Bringing Up Baby is now held in high regard, and rightfully considered one of funniest, wackiest, and best comedies ever made.
Some movies aspire to make you ponder deep issues, while others try to open your mind to avenues of thought that you had not yet considered, some try to scare, some to thrill, some however, just want to sweep you off your feet. The films of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers collaboration that graced the cinema nine times during the 1930s are just such movies, and Swing Time is the best of the bunch. Like all of their pairings, it is a musical comedy with a heavy focus on the dancing of Fred and Ginger, with a screwball plot, entertaining supporting characters, and a charming love story. These are the basic elements of almost all their movies, which are all fun and entertaining, but Swing Time is on another level, not because it sports a more sophisticated plot or great acting performances outside of the leads, no it is the fact that the music and dancing are just so great. Technically, the dance numbers are some of the best of the pair's career, but it is the aesthetic quality of the dances that make them so special. One of the reasons for this is that Astaire and Rogers understood better than anyone that acting doesn't stop when the dancing begins, for instance when they two first meet and dance to "Pick Yourself Up," they dance tentatively, like two people who just met, while later on during they dance like a pair in love during "A Fine Romance," then at the end of the movie when Ginger's conflicted feelings for Fred come to a head, she dances that way. As great as the dances are, the music is just as good, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, Swing Time is filled with songs that are not only classics among movie music, but are standards of American popular music in general. From the bouncy "Pick Yourself Up," to the back-and-forth of "Never Gonna Dance", and the ultimate love song "The Way You Look Tonight," each of the six songs in Swing Time is among the best in movie music history. In addition to the music and dance, Astaire and Rogers are also on the top of their game, and the benefit from their on screen chemistry because the two are so perfect together and really seem to be in love, but when some misunderstanding invariably comes between them, it seems so wrong that the audience is upset. Then when they, of course, come back together it elicits great happiness from the audience. And that is what Swing Time is really all about, it is a movie made to make people happy, to bring a charming slice of cinematic euphoria to the audience. It is just as much of a fantasy as The Lord of the Rings, but instead of swords and magic battles, there is romance, music and magical dance numbers.
After being the king of the box office for many years, the start of the 1930s brought Charlie Chaplin to a crossroads in his career in two respects. Firstly, by this time silent film was clearly on the way out and sound firmly entrenched, which was troublesome for Chaplin, who had made his living playing the Tramp, a completely silent character. Chaplin had to choose whether to stick with silent movies, or move on to sound. The other choice he had to make was to continue on with the straight slapstick of his earlier movies, which is what his fans loved, or give in to his growing creative side and add more serious, dramatic touches to his movies, which he started to embrace more in parts of The Gold Rush (1925). In City Lights, Chaplin answers both of those questions in the best way possible, with the best movie of his career. City Lights is silent, and Chaplin eventually wouldn't make a sound film until 1940, but it doesn't matter, in any era it would be a masterpiece, for the most part because Chaplin did decide to mix humor and drama, and does so to perfection. Also written and directed by Chaplin, City Lights features Chaplin's Tramp living in a big city, chronically his interactions with other residents of the city, two in particular. The first that he encounters is a beautiful, blind Flower Girl (Virginia Cherrill), with whom he falls in love and decides to find a way to raise the money needed for her to have surgery to regain her vision. This quest and his relationship with the Flower Girl make up the heart of the film, while the Tramp also meets a depressed, alcoholic millionaire (Harry Myers), whom he stops from committing suicide and the two develop a friendship, but only when the millionaire is drunk, when sober he doesn't recognize the Tramp. While a blind girl and a suicidal alcoholic might not seem like common comedy plot elements, Chaplin deft keeps the plot from becoming to dark, but also not irreverent either, thanks mostly to the Tramp's innocent and good-hearted nature; he becomes a true friend to two people who don't have many. Like all Chaplin films, physical comedy plays a huge role, as does the various outlandish situations he always finds himself trapped it. It is very funny and very touching, but it never exploits tragedy into comedy, it simply blends those elements in a way where both have their moments, but it never feels like two separate movies either. City Lights is the rare movie that can bring tears to your eyes through laughter, tragedy, and happiness. The Tramp is as funny as ever and his comedic scenes are some of the most creative of Chaplin's career, while the elements involving the Flower Girl and the Millionaire will both tug on the strings of your heart, and break it at times as well.
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