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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 27, 2017 9:39:38 GMT -5
I guess that's what I'm not understanding, then. Why? Tradition. Vaudeville borrowed blackface from the minstrel shows of the previous century. Minstrel shows had a long tradition of white performers in blackface acting clownishly and singing "darkie music." Keep in mind that the term Jim Crow, which came to mean the system of racial segregation laws, evolved from the minstrel song Jump Jim Crow. Blackface certainly wasn't alone in minstrelsy or later vaudeville as a nasty portrayal of ethnic folk. The big nosed miserly Jew, the drunken brawling Irishman, the dumb Pole, the oily crooked Italian...all were standard characters in Vaudeville. Also, keep in mind that it was not unusual for blacks to not be allowed to perform for white audiences or to be relegated to the most minor roles. Certainly you weren't going to get blacks starring on Broadway...not in the 1910s and 20s. Keep in mind that Paul Robeson was the first black actor to play Othello with an otherwise white cast in 1943. Also keep in mind there was separation of venue. While black entertainers could cross over to a white audience the audiences were very definitely segregated. The Cotton Club is a rightfully famed venue known for the amazing black performers to played there, including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, the list goes on and on. It was also a whites only venue. Blacks could play there, but they couldn't watch other black performing. I'm not sure that really answers your question. Basically there was a long tradition of blackface that ran from minstrel shows to vaudeville to movies and on into radio. I'm not even going to go into white co-option of early jazz or "coon songs". This is fascinating, Slam. And the stereotypes survived and flourished in movies as well.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 27, 2017 13:03:26 GMT -5
Did you catch Myrna Loy's cameo in The Jazz Singer? I think she even has a "line." I rather like The Jazz Singer. I've seen it more than once even if it's not really one of my favorite silents. I don't remember The Broadway Melody that well, but I do remember liking it well enough. And I especially like Anita Page! I watch enough silents that I see her from time to time. She's quite good in Our Dancing Daughters. It's been a while since I saw Cimarron but I remember it was a bit of a chore, despite Irene Dunne and Richard Dix. I love them both but this one just didn't work for me. Sounds like our tastes couldn't be more opposite. For me, Broadway Melody was a chore, Cimmaron was thoroughly engaging, and Richard Dix was the worst part Well, I watch A LOT of silent films and early sound films. I've been a fan of the 1925 to 1935 era for decades, and I've grown to appreciate the quirks of the era. I've seen The Jazz Singer twice. Jolson is a very important and influential entertainer. So I sort of forced mysef to watch it a second time a few years ago and while it's not my favorite, it has enough scenes that are at least mildly entertaining, not just the blackface scenes but the scenes of Jewish life in New York. The second time was when I noticed Myrna Loy. And it's freaky seeing Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) as Jolson's rabbi father. And I didn't like Broadway Melody enough that I've ever seen it a second time (though at this point (it's been more than ten years), I'll probably DVR it the next time it's on TCM). If I'm in the mood for a 1930s musical, there's a bunch of great choices from just a few years later - like 42nd Street and Footlight Parade. I've seen both of these a bunch of times. Footlight Parade is my favorite Jimmy Cagney movie. There's also the Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire films (I've seen Shall We Dance over and over through the years) and things like Dames, Gold Diggers of 1933 and the wonderfully wacky Born to Dance with Eleanor Powell so luminous and magical that you forget Jimmy Stewart is even in it. I don't specifically remember what I didn't like about Cimarron. I just remember being very disappointed that I wasn't liking Irene Dunne a lot better. And I have no doubt that Richard Dix was awful in Cimarron. He's got a very peculiar style that absolutely doesn't work if you're supposed to take it seriously. I didn't really appreciate him until later. He was a leading man in late silent film and early sound, and I understand why film buffs find it baffling. I find it baffling! I find him to be a very quirky, goofily intense but hammy actor who performs like he's doing Shakespeare onstage in a barnyard and he wants to make sure the horses and cows in the back can appreciate the performance. He cracks me up. The films to see are Ace of Aces, Stingaree, Val Lewton's The Ghost Ship (he was perfect for Lewton), and at the end of his career, he was in most of the Whistler movies. He was perfect for the Whistler movies.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 27, 2017 13:05:55 GMT -5
But you gotta love the scene where he shoves the grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face! Supposedly, the director wanted that scene added because he'd always been tempted to do it to his own wife... Mae Clark is one of my many early 1930s screen crushes. Aside from having a grapefruit shoved in her face, she's also famous as Henry Frankenstein's fiancée in the 1931 Frankenstein.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 27, 2017 13:17:06 GMT -5
Well, I watch A LOT of silent films and early sound films. I've been a fan of the 1925 to 1935 era for decades, and I've grown to appreciate the quirks of the era. I think that explains it. The 1910s thru 1930s is actually my favorite era of cinema, but I generally watch the foreign stuff, which is a lot more elegant and a lot less quirky. Once the German directors and cinematographers begin fleeing the Third Reich and moving over to the US, I feel the quality of films increases dramatically. By the tail end of the 1930s, American film is in a whole new league. Val Lewton's The Ghost Ship (he was perfect for Lewton), I hadn't realized that was him! Yes, he was perfect for that role. Yeah, every time Richard Dix is on camera in Cimmeron, he strikes me as someone's drunken uncle/cowboy wanna be, eliciting thoughts of this: and this: but definitely NOT this:
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Post by shaxper on Dec 27, 2017 13:19:29 GMT -5
Supposedly, the director wanted that scene added because he'd always been tempted to do it to his own wife... Mae Clark is one of my many early 1930s screen crushes. Aside from having a grapefruit shoved in her face, she's also famous as Henry Frankenstein's fiancée in the 1931 Frankenstein. I'll take Elsa Lanchester over Mae Clark any day
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Post by Pharozonk on Dec 27, 2017 14:34:32 GMT -5
Body Double (1984)Probably my second favorite De Palma flick after Blow Out
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2017 15:13:28 GMT -5
Well, I watch A LOT of silent films and early sound films. I've been a fan of the 1925 to 1935 era for decades, and I've grown to appreciate the quirks of the era. I think that explains it. The 1910s thru 1930s is actually my favorite era of cinema, but I generally watch the foreign stuff, which is a lot more elegant and a lot less quirky. Once the German directors and cinematographers begin fleeing the Third Reich and moving over to the US, I feel the quality of films increases dramatically. By the tail end of the 1930s, American film is in a whole new league. I totally agree with you when right around 1938, the American Films were light-years ahead of any filmmaking country there is and that's why so many German Directors/Cinematographers left Germany to come to the USA to work here and that's anger Hitler because he felt deprived of it. That's why I loved the 40's and the 50's films so much because many American born Directors/Cinematographers learned from the Germans that came over here that's helped the Filmmaking to make huge leaps and bounds. About 80% of the films that I watch is from the 30's to the 50's. 20% from the 60's to Present Day.
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Post by shaxper on Dec 27, 2017 15:52:23 GMT -5
I totally agree with you when right around 1938, the American Films were light-years ahead of any filmmaking country there is and that's why so many German Directors/Cinematographers left Germany to come to the USA to work here and that's anger Hitler because he felt deprived of it. Well...no. The filmmakers left Germany because of the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler's oppressive control of the film industry. Their coming to America is what made American films suddenly take such a leap in quality.
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Post by shaxper on Dec 28, 2017 0:02:52 GMT -5
Grand Hotel (1932)Holy sh*t. Beyond the star-studded cast and brilliant sets that make up the surface of this film, there's a tremendous amount of depth to be found as a cast of characters living in the absolute lap of luxury while the viewing audience was enduring the Great Depression find themselves each terribly alone amidst the decadence, and each character's attempts to reach out to another somehow proves corrupt and insidious, except for the one man there who doesn't actually belong. It's a fun film full of style, comedy, and romance, until it takes an unexpectedly dark turn and leaves us thinking as the gaiety of the Grand Hotel pauses only a moment and then resumes as if our cast of characters had never been there. John Barrymore's Baron Geigern absolutely steals the show, encapsulating the very spirit of chivalry and romance. When Joan Crawford's character comments that she loved him, and Lionel Barrymore's characters chimes in with "Me too," it could be played for laughs, but it isn't because we feel it also. Man, this film...I think it just made my Top 20 of all time. 42nd Street (1933)I expected a simple musical. What I got instead was two almost entirely separate stories -- a drama about putting on a musical, and an actual 30 minute musical at the close. Not sure why folks at this time were so hesitant to just put a musical to film. Broadway Melody, 42nd Street, and so many musicals that would come after it all had to be about making a musical, sneaking in numbers that way instead of trusting that just putting the damn thing to film itself could work. And yet it does -- the musical at the end of the film, while entirely lacking in plot, is utterly delightful, especially with the elaborate sets and camera work. Too bad they couldn't have done this portion in Technicolor. But the first hour of the film is truly special as well. While Ruby Keeler didn't do much for me, Bebe Daniels was excellent, and Warner Baxter's depiction of a director at wit's end was in a class all its own and completely made the film for me. I was absolutely enthralled with his performance. Two winners in one night. May the rest of the boxed set prove this good!
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 28, 2017 2:17:00 GMT -5
They're both great movies! I've only seen Grand Hotel maybe three times but I've seen 42nd Street a bunch. For a while, I was watching it every time it was on TCM.
And Footlight Parade I've seen even more than 42nd Street. I especially love Frank McHugh showing the chorus how to dance like a cat.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2017 11:53:37 GMT -5
The Redhead from Wyoming (1953)This is the first time that I've ever seen this movie that starred Maureen O'Hara along with Alex Nicol as Sheriff Stan Blaine of he sort of distrust Kate (played by O'Hara) Maxwell and William Bishop as Jim Averell that have ambitions to become Governor. It's also starred Alexander Scourby, Jack Kelly, Jeanne Cooper, and Dennis Weaver too. Loved the Women's fashions in this movie and I find it very colorful and alluring and the action in this film is good and that involves the problems of men stealing cattle and getting involved in range wars. Eventually, as the movie goes she finding that Jim is a no-good guy that brought her along so she can have her own place of business and hoping that she can settle down with him and that's his downfall and starting to lean in favor of the Sheriff that played by Alex Nicol. It was on Retroplex late last night and decided to watch it. This is my favorite outfit that she wore in this movie! Anyway, it's has great photography, lots of fistfights, legal issues, romance, and everything else that's involves shooting, and cattle rustlings that's involves illegal branding and all that. I've glad that I watch this movie and enjoyed it very much.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 30, 2017 12:48:40 GMT -5
This morning I've been watching The Prodigal (1955), with Lana Turner. I really love 1950s bible movies. This one not so much. Lana's great. I could just stare at Lana Turner all day. And some of the temple scenes are pretty cool. But I'm kind of bored with it and I'm typing this while I'm watching the last 20 minutes or so. OK! They just threw the hero in a pit of bones and he's being attacked by a vulture! That's pretty cool!
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 30, 2017 13:59:35 GMT -5
That costume and the vulture made me think of one of my all-time favorites: VULTURA! Arch-enemy of Nyoka! (Gotta love the serials!)
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 30, 2017 14:28:12 GMT -5
I've seen enough of the serials to know how much fun they can be ... but I've never seen a Nyoka serial.
However, jungle girls are great so I know a little bit about Nyoka and I've even read a handful of her comic book appearances through reprints and I also had a few issues of Fawcett's Master Comics where Nyoka was one of the features.
She's the jungle girl with jodhpurs! And that's hilarious (to me) for some reason.
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 30, 2017 16:15:16 GMT -5
I've seen enough of the serials to know how much fun they can be ... but I've never seen a Nyoka serial. However, jungle girls are great so I know a little bit about Nyoka and I've even read a handful of her comic book appearances through reprints and I also had a few issues of Fawcett's Master Comics where Nyoka was one of the features. She's the jungle girl with jodhpurs! And that's hilarious (to me) for some reason. In the serials, she wears that mini-skirt. ROWR-R-R-R! as the lions say. Please check out Perils of Nyoka, aka Nyoka and the Tiger-Men (1942). If it ain't in this serial, it's never been in a serial: the aforesaid evil queen-goddess, Vultura, in a slitted skirt and legs that start somewhere around her chin; Charles (Ming the Merciless) Middleton as her chief henchman; the redoubtable Clayton Moore, maskless but still an excellent stunt-man/ heroine's pal; William Benedict (Whitey of the Bowery Boys) for comic relief; Satan ( SA-TAN!), Vultura's loyal gorilla; Tris Coffin as the oily Benito Torrini; Kenne Duncan as another nasty henchman; and Kay Aldridge mixing kick-ass fights and derring-do with one of those Forties Hollywood "sophisticated" accents all the while tossing in a soupcon of itchiness-with-a-capital B. Superb cliffhangers: a chariot flying off a cliff in a "Pit and the Pendulum" trap;" a wind tunnel (Yikes!) also in the side of a cliff; etcetera, etcetera. Horses, Tuaregs, girlfights, collapsing pillars in hiddentemples, shoootouts, all nine yards of the best Republic Pictures could rustle up. Vultura says, "Don't ask, just buy it!" First episode is here: I want a full report.
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