March 18, 1970
Gold Diggers In Paris (1938) ***
Nice little musical set in Paris. Musical numbers:
"I Wanna Go Back To Bali" *
"Day Dreaming All night Long" *
"A Stranger In Paree" *
"The Latin Quarter" ***
"I Wanna Go Back To Bali" (reprise) **
"I Wanna Go Back To Bali" *
"Day Dreaming All night Long" *
"A Stranger In Paree" *
"The Latin Quarter" ***
"I Wanna Go Back To Bali" (reprise) **
Ludzie Wisly (1938) ***
Social realist drama set among Vistula sailors. Directed by Aleksander Ford.
Vivacious Lady (1938) **
Ginger Rogers plays a nightclub singer who marries a university professor in this dated comedy of manners.
Boys Town (1938) **
Spencer Tracy won an Academy Award for Best Actor playing Father Flanagan, the founder of a famous orphanage near Omaha, Nebraska.
Hôtel du Nord (1938) **
Between 1937 and 1945, Marcel Carné has directed six films. Five among them are among the greatest achievements of the French cinema - "Drôle de drame" (1937), "Quai des brumes" (1938), "Le Jour se lève" (1939), "Les Visiteurs du soir" (1942) and especially the immortal "Les Enfants du paradis" (1945). The sixth, "Hôtel du Nord" (1938), is a mediocre melodrama set in a rundown hotel on the outskirts of Paris. Coincidentally, the five classics were all written by the great Jacques Prévert, while "Hôtel du Nord" was penned by Jean Aurenche and Henri Jeanson.
Merrily We Live (1938) **
Screwball comedy about a writer mistaken for a tramp who becomes a chauffeur.
Marie Antoinette (1938) **
Robert Morley is excellent as Louis XVI, but Norma Shearer makes a barely adequate Marie Antoinette in this overproduced costume drama.
Family Diary (1938) *
Very conventional melodrama about marriage. An unusually weak script by an otherwise excellent writer Tadao Ikeda, based on a dreadful story by Nobuko Yoshiya.
Uncle Si And The Sirens (1938) ****
A married man buys a television set. Brilliant and experimental short film, with visually striking innovations and a tasteful sense of beauty.
North Sea (1938) **
Scottish fishermen from Aberdeen are braving a stormy sea. Their trawler is in serious trouble. Only by re-establishing a radio contact with General Post Office operators, can they avoid dangerous waters and safely return home. The picture was directed by H.Watt and produced by A.Cavalcanti for the GPO Film Unit.
Terror Of Tiny Town (1938) ***
An all-midget western. Often considered as a camp classic, it is in fact a fairly good film that can be enjoyed "straight".
Bringing Up Baby (1938) *****
The best, the funniest and the wildest of all the 1930's screwball comedies. It stars Cary Grant as a bumbling palentologist and Katherine Hepburn as a crazy heiress who falls in love with him.
The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938) ****
Excellent adventure film about an English outlaw who took from the rich and gave to the poor. Errol Flynn's best film.
Alexander Nevsky (1938) ****
A Russian prince defends his country from Teutonic knights. A great classic of Soviet cinema; Eisenstein's second-best film (after "Potemkin", of course). Superb editing (especially in the famous battle sequence) and a memorable score by Sergei Prokofiev.
La Femme du boulanger (1938) ****
The Lady Vanishes (1938) ****
One of the best Hitchcock's thrillers, set on a train, with Nazi spies, mysterious disappearances etc. etc.
Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) ***
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" ***
"Ragtime Violin" *
"International Rag" *
"Everybody's Doing It" **
"Now It Can Be Told" **
"This Is The Life" *
"When The Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves For Alabam" **
"For Your Country And My Country" *
"I Can Always Find A Little Sunshine At The YMCA" *
"Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning" **
"We're On The Way To France" **
"Say It With Music" **
"A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" *
"Blue Skies" **
"Pack Up Your Sins And Go To The Devil" *
"What'll I Do"
"My Walking Stick" **
"Remember" *
"Everybody Step" **
"All Alone" *
"Gypsy In Me"
"Easter Parade" *
"Heat Wave" **
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" (reprise) **
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) ***
La Bete humaine (1938) ***
An excellent example of French "poetic realism" of the 1930's, adapted from a novel by Emile Zola.
Carefree (1938) ***
"Golf Solo" **
"I Used To Be Color Blind" *
"The Yam" ***
"Change Partners" **
The Dawn Patrol (1938) ***
Errol Flynn and David Niven are two fighter pilots in France during World War I. Interesting film about friendship, courage and the futility of war.
The Girl Of The Golden West (1938) ***
Nostalgic folk musical starring Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.
The Goldwyn Follies (1938) ***
The plot is trite, but there are several memorable musical numbers in this colorful film.
Holiday (1938) ***
Another pairing of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, not as successful as "Bringing Up Baby", but still memorable.
If I Were King (1938) ***
Jezebel (1938) ***
Fascinating drama set in antebellum New Orleans and starring Bette Davis as a headstrong Southern belle quarreling with her rich fiance (Henry Fonda).
Listen, Darling (1938) ***
Freddie Bartholomew helps his girlfriend (Judy Garland) find a suitable husband for her widowed mother (Mary Astor). Scotty Beckett (playing Garland's younger brother) steals every scene. Songs include:
"Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart" ***
"On The Bumpy Road To Love" **
"Ten Pins In The Sky" *
"Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart" ***
"On The Bumpy Road To Love" **
"Ten Pins In The Sky" *
Little Miss Broadway (1938) ***
Shirley Temple, Edna May Olivier, a couple of good songs... Who needs anything more ?
Mad About Music (1938) ***
A comedy starring Deanna Durbin as a schoolgirl in Switzerland, who asks a pianist (Herbert Marshall) to pose as her father. Songs:
"I Love To Whistle" **
"Ave Maria" *
"Chapel Bells" *
"I Love To Whistle" (reprise) **
"Serenade To The Stars" *
"I Love To Whistle" **
"Ave Maria" *
"Chapel Bells" *
"I Love To Whistle" (reprise) **
"Serenade To The Stars" *
Pawel i Gawel (1938) ***
Skomplikowana komedia pelna rozmaitych maskarad, pomylek i nieporozumien. 19-letnia Violetta (Helena Grossowna) udaje 13-letnie genialne dziecko, podaje sie za corke Pawla (Eugeniusza Bodo), ktorego jednoczesnie podrywa przebierajac sie za dorosla kobiete. Dwie ladne piosenki Henryka Warsa:
"Aaa kotki dwa" ***
"Moze ty bedziesz ma krolewna" **
"Aaa kotki dwa" ***
"Moze ty bedziesz ma krolewna" **
Pygmalion (1938) ***
This otherwise excellent adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play has been overshadowed by its more famous musical version, "My Fair Lady", filmed in 1964. Co-directed by Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard.
Quai des brumes (1938) ****
Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) ***
It bears almost no resemblance to the classic novel (for a more faithful adaptation, see Mary Pickford's 1917 version), but it has great musical numbers. Shirley Temple is the star.
You Can't Take It With You (1938) ***
More weird than his other pictures, this Frank Capra comedy won an Oscar for best film. It’s a screwball-comedy-in-reverse - instead of crazy rich people making fools of themselves in front of working class stoics, it features a zany lower class family for a change.
Zapomniana melodia (1938) ***
"Ach jak przyjemnie" ***
"Panie Janie (wersja tradycyjna) *
"Juz nie zapomnisz mnie" ***
"Panie Janie" (wersja swing) **
"Juz nie zapomnisz mnie" (powtorka) **
Madreselva (1938) **
Romantic problems of a young opera singer (Libertad Lamarque). An Argentinian melodrama with nice songs and arias.
The Big Broadcast Of 1938 (1938) *
This musical has everything - songs, dance numbers, golf games, pool games, ship races, cartoon sequences, even opera singers - but it's still a horrible mess. Musical numbers:
"This Little Ripple Had Rhythm" *
"Zuni Zuni"
"You Took The Words Right Out Of My Heart" *
"Thanks For The Memory" **
"Mama, That Moon Is Here Again" *
"The Waltz Lives On" **
"This Little Ripple Had Rhythm" *
"Zuni Zuni"
"You Took The Words Right Out Of My Heart" *
"Thanks For The Memory" **
"Mama, That Moon Is Here Again" *
"The Waltz Lives On" **
The Cowboy and The Lady (1938) *
A very misleading title - it's not a western, but a romantic drama about the daughter of a presidential candidate who falls in love with a rodeo cowboy in... Palm Beach. Merle Oberon and Gary Cooper are fine, but the film is unbearably old-fashioned.
Brave Little Tailor (1938) *****
Mickey's Trailer (1938) *****
Porky In Wackyland (1938) *****
Cinderella Meets Fella (1938) ****
Porky The Fireman (1938) ****
Plenty of fire, plenty of water and plenty of gags. Directed by Frank Tashlin.
Katnip Kollege (1938) ****
Have You Got Any Castles ? (1938) ****
Ferdinand The Bull (1938) ****
Donald's Nephews (1938) ***
Donald's sister Dumbella sends her three little "angels" (Huey, Dewey and Louie) to visit their uncle. They transform Donald's house into a golf course and feed him a "volcano brand mustard" pie.
The Whalers (1938) ***
Mickey, Donald and Goofy are brave fishermen in this late entry in the celebrated "trio" series. The whale they're chasing wrecks their ship, but Goofy does manage to make a catch.
Jungle Jitters (1938) ***
A traveling salesman comes to an African village. The natives capture him, throw him into a pot of boiling water, and ransack his goods. But when the salesman is introduced to the village queen, she takes a liking to him. The salesman finds himself with the choice between a forced marriage with the homely queen, or the boiling pot of water. He chooses the pot. One of the infamous "Censored Eleven" Warner Bros cartoons.
Daffy Duck In Hollywood (1938) ***
Daffy Duck wanders around a Hollywood studio, annoying the director, kissing the leading lady and splicing together a goofy newsreeler in the editing room.
Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (1938) ***
Tex Avery's take on the Mayflower, John Smith and Pocahontas. Fresh and inventive.
Daffy Duck And Egghead (1938) ***
Egghead (a formative character that eventually evolved into Elmer Fudd) is hunting Daffy Duck, who reprises his screwball characterization from 1937's "Porky's Duck Hunt", singing silly tunes and acting nutty all the time.
Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) ***
This otherwise routine cartoon by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway holds the distinction of being the first film starring Bugs' Bunny.
Porky At The Crocadero (1938) ***
Dishwasher Porky is hired as a band leader at a posh nightclub. Directed by Frank Tashlin.
The Frog Pond (1938) ***
Ub Iwerks directed this nice cartoon about frogs. It's also an allegory about monarchism.
Gandy The Goose (1938) ***
In Gandy's film debut, he leaves home and barely escapes from being cooked in a stew pot.
The Captain's Christmas (1938) ***
A thief steals Santa's costume and delivers the gifts himself. Handsomely produced cartoon with some weird ideas and a few laughs.
Good Scouts (1938) ***
Scout leader Donald and his three nephews are camping in the woods. The film ends with a memorable image of Donald being chased by a hungry bear atop a huge turning rock kept afloat by an active geyser!
Porky's Poppa (1938) ***
Wacky cartoon about Porky's cow Bessie suffering from a "hoof 'in mouth" disease, but still competing against Porky's father's mechanical cow. The most memorable gag: Bessie giving "birth" to a bottle of chocolate milk.
The Isle Of Pingo-Pongo (1938) ***
An excellent Tex Avery cartoon set on a tropical island. It was included among the infamous "Censored Eleven", even though its portrayal of black characters was far less stereotypical than in the other films (they are not seen as cannibals like in "Jungle Jitters").
A Feud There Was (1938) ***
Tex Avery's cartoon about fighting hillbillies. Remade years later by Disney as "The Martins And The Coys" segment of "Make Mine Music" (1946).
Moth And The Flame (1938) ***
Plenty of exciting action in this well-animated cartoon about moths fighting flames.
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938) ***
Excellent caricatures of Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Durante, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, W.C.Fields, Greta Garbo and many, many others. An unusual cartoon for Disney, completely devoid of any narrative tread.
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