The band wagon 1953 - Last of the great Hollywood musicals

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IMDB Rating: 7,6

Director: Vincente Minnelli
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan

"Made towards the end of MGM producer Arthur Freed's peak period of musical productions, at a time when movies, theater, and other forms of entertainment were all feeling the heat from the rise of television, preeminent musical director Vincente Minnelli's backstage story celebrates the musical itself and its brand of pop entertainment. Pitting Fred Astaire's washed-up movie hoofer against Jack Buchanan's high-falutin' artiste and Cyd Charisse's transplanted ballerina, The Band Wagon reflexively pokes fun at the musical's excesses and delves into the question of what an audience really wants, implicitly defending traditional forms of entertainment at a time when Hollywood was in decline and consumers were turning to new form of recreation. As with Freed's Singin' in the Rain (1952), the sophisticated comedy of show business manners becomes a showcase for the Freed Unit's sparkling production values and musical acumen, as well as Minnelli's stylistic virtuosity. While numbers such as Astaire's 42nd street dance 'Shine on Your Shoes' and Astaire's and Charisse's 'Dancing in the Dark' reveal Minnelli's mastery at integrating dance and story, the final 'Band Wagon' revue is a peerless sequence of pure musical entertainment, with 'The Girl Hunt' deftly mixing the high and low arts of ballet and jazz in a parody of Mickey Spillane's detective yarns. Though not one of Minnelli's Oscar winners, The Band Wagon has come to be considered his best musical, and a wise elegy to the form." - www.allmovie.com

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In a lonely place 1950 - One of the darkest portraits of Hollywood

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IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Nicholas Ray
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy

"A haunting work of stark confessionalism disguised as a taut noir thriller, In a Lonely Place - Nicholas Ray's bleak, desperate tale of fear and self-loathing in Hollywood - remains one of the filmmaker's greatest and most deeply resonant features.
It stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a fading screenwriter suffering from creative burnout; hired to adapt a best-selling novel, instead of reading the book itself he asks the hat-check girl (Martha Stewart) at his favorite nightclub to simply tell him the plot. The morning after, the girl is found brutally murdered, and Steele is the police's prime suspect; however, the would-be starlet across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), provides him with a solid alibi, and they soon begin a romance in spite of Gray's lingering concerns that the troubled, violent Steele might just be a killer after all.
During production, Ray's real-life marriage to co-star Grahame began to crumble, and his own vulnerability and disillusionment clearly inform the picture; the brooding, bitter Steele - a role ideally suited to Bogart's wounded romanticism - is plainly a doppelganger for Ray himself (the site of his first Hollywood apartment is even employed as the set for Steele's home), and the film's unflinching examination of the character's disintegration makes for uniquely compelling viewing." - www.allmovie.com

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Sunset Boulevard 1950 - A Hollywood story: Billy Wilder's masterpiece

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IMDB rating: 8,6

Director: Billy Wilder
Main Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson

"Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. In his pungent satire of the industry's sordidness, Wilder turned Hollywood history back on itself, with the presence of silent film star Gloria Swanson as aging silent diva Norma Desmond and great silent director Erich von Stroheim as her butler eloquently commenting on the ephemerality of fame. Her writer/gigolo Joe Gillis incarnated corruptly desperate young Hollywood, dismissing forgotten greats like Buster Keaton as 'waxworks' while imagining that he can escape unscathed from Norma's fantasy world. Shot in ultra-noir black-and-white in a 1920s Hollywood mansion, the looming ceilings, overstuffed rooms, and oblique lighting rendered Norma's environment alluringly sinister in its deteriorating decadence, while Joe's famous 'entrance' - floating face-down dead in Norma's pool while recounting his story in voiceover - caustically upended narrative conventions. Greeted with raves, Sunset Boulevard became Swanson's cinematic triumph; William Holden's performance as Joe reignited his own stardom. Wilder originally offered the film to Mae West, Mary Pickford and Pola Negri. Montgomery Clift was the first choice for the part of opportunistic screenwriter Joe Gillis, but he refused, citing as 'disgusting' the notion of a 25-year-old man being kept by a 50-year-old woman.
Despite offending the movie moguls, Wilder was rewarded with eleven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Actor, and Actress. Along with wins for Art Direction and Franz Waxman's score, Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman, Jr. took a Screenplay prize.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical version has served as a tour-de-force for contemporary actresses ranging from Glenn Close to Betty Buckley to Diahann Carroll." - www.allmovie.com

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Sullivan's travels 1941 - One of the finest movies about movies ever made

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IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: Preston Sturges
Main Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake

"The most ambitious of Preston Sturges' string of 1940s classics, Sullivan's Travels is a brilliant mixture of genres, combining giddy comedy with often brutal realism, made all the more powerful by the contrast. The first part of the film, which details the botched attempts of idealistic film director John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) to leave Hollywood, smoothly blends outrageous slapstick with Sturges' customary satirical dialogue, and includes classic exchanges between Sullivan and his Hollywood producers (Robert Warwick and Porter Hall) and his hilariously droll and opinionated butler (Robert Greig). The tone of the movie changes considerably with three bravura sequences. The first, a graceful, wordless section in which Sullivan and his nameless companion (Veronica Lake, showing a nice flair for comedy) spend a night among the homeless, proves that, although Sturges is noted mainly for his writing, he was also a sensitive and talented director. The second, a violent chain-gang episode almost shocking in its stark realism, and the third, a short musical passage set in a rural church, hammer home the movie's apparent moral: that, as Sullivan puts it, 'there's a lot to be said for making people laugh'. Sturges may seem to be ridiculing a cinema of ideas, but his final joke is that Sullivan's Travels supports a different argument: that comedy and serious drama can co-exist quite happily after all." - www.allmovie.com

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City lights 1931 - A plea for humanitarianism and justice

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IMDB rating: 8,6

Director: Charles Chaplin
Main Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers

"Many critics consider City Lights to be Charles Chaplin's finest film, no small accomplishment considering his long string of great films. The film is a Chaplin tour-de-force, as he has his hand in almost every aspect of its production. He co-wrote, produced, directed, scored and edited the film. Unwilling to bend to the winds of change, which saw the introduction of the spoken word in movies three years earlier, Chaplin's is a silent film. However, he does use music and sound effects cleverly throughout, even employing them pointedly to satirize "the talkies." Other familiar targets are the hypocrisy, prissiness, and arrogance of wealthy 'polite society' and cruelty to society's less fortunate, lovable outcasts like The Little Tramp himself. Of course, Chaplin's physical comedy is riotously funny. He dances along the highwire between hilarity and disaster with aplomb. All the while, Chaplin's Little Tramp maintains his dignity and sense of fair play. City Lights's parallel plot lines unfold effectively, as the storyline involving The Little Tramp and the suicidal millionaire presages themes developed more fully in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The pathos-ridden love story with the blind flower girl plays on universal themes, such as the intoxicating blindness of love and the rejuvenating power of selflessness. A graceful, athletic artist of pantomime, Chaplin's Little Tramp moves effortlessly between figures of destitution and wealth, aiding and abetting all around him. City Lights is a paean to our best impulses, a plea for humanitarianism and justice. Most important, it is the work of a master craftsman, in full control of his craft." - www.allmovie.com

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Lady killer 1933 - Cagney as a Hollywood gangster

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IMDB rating: 7,1

Director: Roy Del Ruth
Main Cast: James Cagney, Mae Clarke, Margaret Lindsay, Leslie Fenton

"Mae Clarke, in her autobiography Featured Player (1996), claimed that James Cagney and director William Wellman basically created the famous grapefruit incident in The Public Enemy (1931) without her consent and that the viciousness of the attack had shocked her. The scene is, of course, unforgettable and a follow-up inevitable. It came two-thirds of the way through Lady Killer when gangster-turned-movie star Cagney discovers a kittenish Miss Clarke in his bedroom - much to the consternation of his movie-star girlfriend Margaret Lindsay. Despite his newfound sophistication, Cagney acts as he would have in Hell's Kitchen: He drags the unwelcome guest out of the room by her hair! This time, happily, Clarke was in on the gag and she is visibly holding on for dear life to Cagney's wrists. The scene is still startling in its brutality, especially coming in what is really a comedy. And despite this act of physical abuse and a climactic shootout that leaves bodies scattered all over what appears to be Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles, Lady Killer is a comedy and a good one. As always, the Warner Bros. stock company is in high gear throughout and there are especially enjoyable performances by Douglas Dumbrille as Cagney's former partner-in-crime and Herman Bing as an autocratic director of Western movies. Lady Killer is vintage Cagney, throwing virtually every one of his star-making attributes (including one cute reference to his legendary 'grapefruit scene' in 1931's The Public Enemy) into one entertaining 76-minute stew." - www.allmovie.com

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Bombshell 1933 - Shining comic riot with Harlow & Tracy

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IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Victor Fleming
Main Cast: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone, Pat O'Brien, Una Merkel, Ted Healy, Isabel Jewell, Louise Beavers, C. Aubrey Smith

"Jean Harlow is the 'bombshell' of the title, a popular movie actress named Lola. Though she seemingly has everything a girl could possibly want, Lola is fed up with her sponging relatives, her 'work til you drop' studio, and the nonsensical publicity campaigns conducted by press agent Lee Tracy. She tries to escape Hollywood by marrying a titled foreign nobleman, but Tracy has the poor guy arrested as an illegal alien. Finally Lola finds what she thinks is perfect love in the arms of aristocratic Franchot Tone, but she renounces Tone when his snooty father C. Aubrey Smith looks down his nose at Lola and her profession. Upon discovering that Tone and his entire family were actors hired by Tracy, Lola goes ballistic - until she realizes that Tracy, for all his bluff and chicanery, is the man who truly loves her. Allegedly based on the career of Clara Bow (who, like Lola, had a parasitic family and a duplicitous private secretary), Bombshell is a prime example of Jean Harlow at her comic best. So as not to mislead audiences into thinking this was a war picture, MGM retitled the film Blonde Bombshell for its initial run.
All of the actors are terrific. Franchot Tone is hilarious, totally and deliberately way over the top saying lines such as the one in the summary box. Harlow is surrounded with the best character actors - Lee Tracy, who despite a scandal in 1934 managed to enjoy a nearly 40-year career is great as Lola's fast-talking scam artist agent; Frank Morgan plays his usual role of a weak man, but not a bad one; Louise Beavers brings spark to the role of a maid; Pat O'Brien is in top form as the volatile Brogan.
But it's Harlow's film, and she keeps up with the frantic pace of the film beautifully. Funny and vulnerable, she's hilarious when she pretends she's upper class, as she's often done in her films - no one has ever pulled that off quite like she has. Bombshell is one of her best films among a lot of wonderful ones." - www.allmovie.com

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Free and easy 1930 - Keaton's talkie debut

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020902/?ref_=nv_sr_2
IMDB rating: 5,6

Director: Edward Sedgwick
Main Cast: Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Robert Montgomery, Fred Niblo, Lionel Barrymore, William Haines, Dorothy Sebastian

"Buster Keaton's talkie debut (discounting his non-speaking guest appearance in Hollywood Revue of 1929) was Free and Easy, an uneven but generally amusing comedy with a Hollywood setting.
When pretty Elvira (Anita Page) of Gopher City, Kansas wins a beauty contest, her prize includes a trip to Tinseltown and a screen test at MGM. Appointing himself protector of Elvira and her formidable mother (Trixie Friganza), gas-station attendant Elmer Butts (Keaton) accompanies them to California. Once they've arrived, Elmer manages to disrupt the daily MGM routine, stumbling into films in progress, knocking over sets and breaking props, and finding himself taking a screen test in which he repeatedly blows the single line 'The queen has swooned' ('The sween has quooned', 'The coon has sweened') over and over. Meanwhile, latin-lover film star Lorenzo (Robert Montgomery) sets his sights on innocent Elvira, attempting to seduce her while Elmer's back is turned. But Lorenzo turns out to be a good guy - in fact, his real name is Larry, and he's a Kansas boy himself - and he arranges for Elvira to get her big break. In a surprise turnaround, Elvira doesn't win a contract, but Elmer and Elvira's mom become popular musical-comedy stars!
The film is studded with guest appearances by such MGM contractees as directors Cecil B. DeMille, Lionel Barrymore, Fred Niblo, and actors Gwen Lee, John Miljan, William Haines, Karl Dane and Keaton's then-girlfriend Dorothy Sebastian. The film was remade as Pick a Star in 1937, and as Abbott and Costello in Hollywood in 1945." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/free-and-easy-v18547

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A star is born 1937 - Is the price of stardom a broken heart?

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029606/
IMDB rating: 7,7

Directors: Jack Conway, William A. Wellman
Main Cast: Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Owen Moore, Peggy Wood

"A Star is born came into being when producer David O. Selznick decided to tell a 'true behind-the-scenes' story of Hollywood. The truth, of course, was filtered a bit for box-office purposes, although Selznick and an army of screenwriters based much of their script on actual people and events. (Especially the marriage of Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay. The latter was a huge Broadway star who just started to wash up and his young wife's career in Hollywood began to take off. The writers were at great pains to insist at the beginning of the movie that 'all resemblance to any person is purely coincidental...' and all of that. But everyone in Hollywood knew at the time.) A star is born showcased Janet Gaynor's last great performance and established one of the screen's most enduring tales of tragic love. A triumph of top-grade production values, writing, and acting, it represented the zenith of efforts from United Artists in the late 1930s, and remains entertaining and relevant when viewed by current-day audiences. This is one of the best films of the 1930s, particularly notable for the acting and the high level of technical work, as director William Wellman adroitly combines a rich visual style with the luminous performances of the film's stars. An honorary Oscar selected by a panel of cinematographers went to Howard Greene's Technicolor work, helping to change Academy rules two years later to recognize color cinematography as a separate category from Black & White. The film received seven Oscar nominations overall, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Gaynor, and Best Actor for Fredric March, winning for Wellman and co-scripter Robert Carson as Best Original Story." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-star-is-born-v46638/

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