Have a good time learning about and watching these classic movies and if you can, buy the DVD! (You can keep movies alive and support this blog this way!)
DVD links will be added movie by movie - from where you can pick your own favorite one. (Isn't it wonderful to have your own?)
And please take a look at my other blogs too! (My Blog List below)

Search this blog

Showing posts with label Moss Hart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moss Hart. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

You can't take it with you 1938 - A family of free spirits


IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030993/
IMDB rating: 8,0


Director: Frank Capra
Main Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington



"Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. The result is a joyful celebration of good-natured people and unconventional lifestyles. In some ways, it presages the 'do your own thing' philosophy of the 1960s, and it is easy to imagine free-spirited families of the '60s as creative descendants of Hart and Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning characters. The cast features some of the finest comic actors of its era. While Lionel barrymore and James Stewart were equally adept at drama, the film also features fine performances from such humor specialists as Spring Byington, Dub Taylor, and Mischa Auer. Of special note is the presence of comic legend Eddie Anderson, who, with his supporting performance in Gone with the wind, became the first African-American actor to appear in more than one Oscar- winning Best Picture.
You can't take it with you earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/you-cant-take-it-with-you-v55902

DVD links:


Saturday, November 5, 2011

Once in a lifetime 1932 - A Hollywood story, extremely funny and entertaining

Fashion portrait of Sidney Fox circa 1932


IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023302/
IMDB rating: 6,8


Director: Russell Mack
Main Cast: Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox, Aline MacMahon, Zasu Pitts



"Based on the stage comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Once in a Lifetime is a satire of Hollywood's early-talkie era. A down-and-out vaudeville trio (Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, and Russell Hopton) takes advantage of the confusion attending the talkie revolution by heading to Hollywood and posing as voice experts. George (Oakie), the team's dimwitted straight man, falls in love with a pretty young miss (Sidney Fox) who has come to Hollywood to become an actress - and won't let her utter lack of talent get in the way. Fast-talking themselves into jobs at the Glogauer Studios, the phony vocal specialists eventually wear out their welcome and are on the verge of being fired. But George, who has been listening to the complaints of a disillusioned screenwriter, suddenly spouts those complaints word for word to Mr. Glogauer (Gregory Ratoff) - and is lauded as a genius for being the first man to stand up to the despotic studio head. George is made a producer, and immediately sets about filming an expensive movie vehicle for his girlfriend. Unfortunately, George had found the script for his film in a wastebasket, and winds up shooting the wrong picture. He and his vaudeville chums are fired, but when his picture (an incomprehensible farrago shot in darkness because George forgot to turn on the klieg lights) is previewed, it is hailed as a daringly original masterpiece. George is made the supervising producer of Glogauer Studios, and all ends happily for himself and his friends. An interesting precursor to the Singin' in the Rain school of Hollywood kidding itself, Once in a Lifetime has tarnished a bit over the years but is still well worth seeing." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/once-in-a-lifetime-v127936

Download links: