As the 1930s were ending, Errol Flynn's career as a superstar was also coming to a close. His health was declining from a number of different medical issues, which began to take a toll on his signature lively, athletic performances. In addition to that, the tastes of America was changing; audiences were no longer as interested in historical adventures and fantasies. World War II had turned the 1940s into a decade of gritty realism and patriotic, America-centric movies; it was the decade of Film Noir and Sergeant York. Flynn also started moving in that direction with his 40s output: Santa Fe Trail (1940) is all about American unification, Dive Bomber (1941) and Desperate Journey (1942) featured Flynn as a U.S. Air Force Pilot, Flynn kills Nazis in Edge of Darkness (1943), Northern Pursuit (1943), and Uncertain Glory (1944) before transitioning to the Pacific Theater in Objective, Burma! (1945). Not until 1948's Adventure of Don Juan did Flynn make another costume adventure. In that way, The Sea Hawk is almost a bittersweet send off to the one of the most exciting actors in the screen has ever seen. Like many classic Hollywood movies, it is historical in setting and overall plot only, because no one watches to learn about Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada, they want to see sword fights, romance, costumes, and sea battles, all of which The Sea Hawk delivers in spades. Flynn stars as Geoffrey Thorpe, and English privateer serving Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) during one of the many periods of hostility between Spain and England during the 1500s. Mixed in with the classic Flynn swashbuckling, directed by Michael Curtiz, is a political intrigue featuring Elizabeth, Spanish Ambassador Don Jose (Claude Rains), and secret English traitor Lord Wolfingham (Henry Daniell). And, of course, their is romance between Flynn and Don Jose's niece, Dona Maria (Brenda Marshall). Accenting all this is a terrific score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold as well as beautiful set and costume design like only Hollywood can do. For better or worse, The Sea Hawk serves as a last hurrah for the lighthearted adventure/fantasy of the 30s as well as their most prominent star.
Of all the classic Hollywood studios, there was really MGM and everyone else, especially during the 1930s where MGM dominated the box office, mostly on the strength of their musicals. Audiences in the 30s wanted something to distract them from the rough times brought about by the Great Depression and MGM's musicals perfectly provided just that type of escapism. In the 40s, the adventure and fantasy genre started to fall out of favor as the movie industry turned towards darker genres like Film Noir and psychological thrillers, but there was no stopping the musical machine. If anything, MGM was stronger than ever in the 40s, they had an unmatched stable of stars at that time including Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse and so many more, basically all the biggest singing and dancing stars of the day. Musicals appealed to studios just as much as audiences because, not a lot was required from their scripts, but they had a large catalog of already written music to choose from, not to mention a very large collection on-staff musicians to pump out songs and Broadway musicals to choose from. Most musicals were very light on plot, which were frequently just used as an excuse to get to the numbers. Created as tribute of the forebearer of the musical film, Ziegfeld Follies completely drops any pretense of story and is simply a showcase of MGM's musical and comedy stars in the form of a musical revue like the original Follies created by Florenz Ziegfeld in the early 1900s. Ziegfeld Follies features dozens of performances by the like of Garland, Kelly, Astaire, Williams, and Charissee as well Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Fanny Brice, Williams Powell, Virginia O'Brien, James Melton and many others. Some of the notable musical numbers include Astaire, Ball, and Charissee performing a number of standards such "Here's to the Girls" by Roger Edens and Arthur Freed; O'Brien singing "Bring On The Wonderful Men" while on horseback, Williams in one of her classic bathing beauty numbers, and most notably, two of the greats, Astaire and Kelly dancing together for the first time during George and Ira Gershwin's "The Babbitt and the Bromide." In addition to that, Ziegfeld Follies also features several very funny comedic performance including Red Skelton as J. Newton Numbskull and Garland in a hilarious spoof of self-aggrandizing movie stars, written by Kay Thompson and showcasing Garland's underutilized comedic talent. In many ways, Ziegfeld Follies is a primer to musicals of the 1940s and a perfect way to introduce newcomers to the wacky and wonderful spectacle of the MGM musical and all their many stars.
All throughout the 1930s and early 40s, the predominant type of comedy film was of the screwball variety. If it wasn't Three Stooges-style slapstick or something wholly unique like the Marx Brothers, then it was a screwball. However, as the mid-40s began, screwball comedies faded out of fashion and the genre moved in another direction. However, even after it was less popular, Hollywood still produced a several screwball gems. One of these is The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, featuring veterans of the genre Cary Grant and Myrna Loy as well as nineteen year-old Shirley Temple. Grant stars as Richard Nugent, a well-known painter, socialite and bachelor who is gets involved in a night club fight and ends up appearing in court in front of Judge Margaret Turner (Loy), who disapproves of his lifestyle and tells him so. Later that day however, Richard is lecturing at the local high school where he fascinates the students, including Margaret's seventeen year-old sister Susan (Temple) who talks to him after the lecture and falls in love and deluding herself into thinking Richard wants to paint her. Susan sneaks off and gains entrance to Richard's apartment when he is out, Richard returns to find her just as Margaret and her district attorney friend Tommy Chamberlain (Rudy Vallee) show up and have him arrested. The sisters uncle (Ray Collins) believes Richard is innocent, but also that Susan believes she is in love with him that if he completely ignores her it will damage her. Therefore, Richard is sentenced to continue along "dating" Susan until she grows out of it, all the while he falls in love with Margaret. There is plenty of humor to be found in the situations themselves, such as Susan and Richard going on a date to a high school basketball game, but the best parts of the movie come from the dialogue. Grant and Loy particularly shoot back and forth their witty repartee with terrific fervor. One part of the script in particular has Grant infuriating various characters with slang and the now famous "You remind me of a man..." routine. The story and the script were written by Sidney Sheldon as his first major film credit, and were so good he would go on and win the Oscar for Best Screenplay. The whole movie is a terrific example of the signature screwball rapid-fire dialogue, comedic misunderstandings, and cockeyed romances. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is one of the last great additions to one of the funniest, cleverest, and most entertaining genres in movie history.
Because of the new direction that the film industry was heading in during and after World War II, that also meant new stars were popping up all over. The Hollywood star machine was in top gear, but instead of looking for performers who could sing, dance, and tell jokes like in the 30s, they were looking for dramatic actors. All these new, darker movies didn't need vaudeville stars, they needed faces; visages that could convey emotion without a word then deliver the next, occasional over-wrought line of dialogue. During the 1940s, stars such as Lauren Bacall, Burt Lancaster, and Ava Gardner were discovered, bit players like Robert Mitchum got their big breaks while Orson Welles transitioned from stage and radio to the big screen. No star quite defined the new era of movies quite like Ingrid Bergman however, her roles in movies like Casablanca (1943), Spellbound (1945), and Notorious (1946) exemplified the darker themes of war, betrayal, and psychological instability that permeated the decade. Another sterling example of this is Gaslight, based on the the popular stage play, it is a psychological thriller set in the late 1800s about the systematic destruction of a woman's mental state. Bergman plays that woman, Paula Anton, who spent years abroad studying music as a way to recover from the mental scaring she received after walking in on her Aunt's murder by a burglar, who was attempting to steal the families priceless jewels. While abroad, Paula falls in love with Gregory (Charles Anton), and marries him. Against her better judgement, he convinces her to move back to the London house where the murder took place. Living in her childhood home has a negative effect Paula's mental state, but the situation is only exacerbated by the way that Gregory treats her, simultaneously coddling, manipulating, and humiliating to the point that Paula is on the verge of a complete mental collapse. The main course of the movie follows his attempts at breaking her down, director George Cukor does a terrific job using the dark, foggy London atmosphere and dim, gas-lamp lit drawing rooms of their house to create a feeling of isolation. Each room seems overstuffed with furniture and decorations, adding to Paula's feeling of claustrophobia. Indeed, the few times she is allowed to venture out of the house seem like emerging from under dark water just before your lungs are going to fail. Both leads give terrific performances, but Bergman especially shines towards the end of the movie when it becomes clear even if she escapes Gregory's clutches, she is never going to be right again, and in some ways is become just as twisted as her husband. In ways that would be unthinkable just ten years before, Gaslight, along with movies like Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941) ushered in the genre of the psychological thriller, which are still popular to this day.
Nowadays, new Christmas movies are a staple of holiday season, the industry releases several a year and most are forgotten in a couple years. In the golden age of Hollywood, however, it was a different story. Besides a couple of versions of A Christmas Carol, there wasn't anything in the way of a traditional Christmas movie before the 1940s. That is until, at the beginning of the 40s when slowly they started to trickle out to critical and financial success, The Shop Around The Corner (1940), Holiday Inn (1942), Christmas in Connecticut (1945), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946) all utilized the holiday setting with terrific results. Therefore, when Miracle on 34th Street was released, the idea of Christmas movie wasn't completely novel, but was a relatively new concept. Perhaps that is why it resonated so much with audiences, but whatever the reason, resonate it did. The story is well known, Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) fills in for the intoxicated Macy's parade Santa and is eventually hired by Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) to as the store's full time Santa. Problems arise when Kris starts sending costumers to rival department stores for better toys. However, it gets worse when Kris tells Doris' daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) that he really is Santa Claus, and she believes him, upsetting her mother. His insistence that he is the real Santa escalates to the point that he has to battle in court to keep out of a sanitarium. Kris is helped by Doris and Susan's lawyer neighbor Fred Gailey (John Payne), who also has to happens be in love with Doris, who likes Kris, but doesn't believe him, or in Santa, and is worried it will break her daughters heart to find out the truth, especially after her and her husband's divorce. The movie is as much about Doris learning to trust again and a little girls faith being rewarded as it is about Santa Claus. The heartbreak that divorce causes is also on full display, not something typically expected from a Christmas movie, but like all great movies it tackles serious themes head-on, but never becomes morose. These themes are what make the movie truly inspiring, and it has nothing to do with Christmas at all. Miracle on 34th Street was a huge success in the box office, making back it's budget five times over, and it was a critical success too, winning three Academy Awards and was also nominated for Best Picture, rare for a holiday movie. It continued to be a major part of the Christmas season, kicking the season of for many families when it is traditionally played on Thanksgiving night. Today, Miracle on 34th Street is an indelible part of the holidays and still has the power to touch the heart and fill you with Christmas spirit.
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