Comfort Films in a Time of Trouble: 5 from 1933

Every classic movie lover knows about the golden year of 1939. But the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s produced such a wealth of wonderful films of every conceivable type — comedies, both zany and sophisticated, social dramas, romances, sports stories, war stories, you name it. The screen abounded with detectives, chorus girls, gangsters, ingenues and great ladies, singers, dancers, horsemen and sailors.

So I’m happy to take part in this blogathon which will, it is to be hoped, allow us to gather around our screens (of whatever size) and derive a little warmth and comfort from favorite films recommended by people who love them.

I’ve chosen five from 1933. This was another stellar year, with some great movies in every genre. Lady for a Day, Min and Bill, Design for Living, Picture Snatcher — so many. But for the purposes of this blogathon I chose comedies and musicals. These are all movies I’ve seen innumerable times, and I can watch all or part of any of them practically any time.

golddiggers 33 jbww
It’s about to get hot.

1. Gold Diggers of 1933. Starring Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Aline McMahon, Dick Powell, Warren William, Guy KIbbee, Ned Sparks, and Ginger Rogers.  Mervyn LeRoy directed this, the best of the Gold Diggers series, and imbues it with his characteristic emotional resonance. This one has everything — a lively, engaging story, great music, fantastic production numbers staged by Busby Berkeley, and something lot of musicals lack — a truly sexy romance. Topping off the delightful performances by, well, everybody (catch the squabbling between chorines Aline McMahon and Ginger Rogers over the affections of Guy Kibbee!) is a remarkably steamy love scene between Joan Blondell and Warren William. I mean. it gives new meaning to steamy.

jessie matthews and john giulgud
Jessie Matthews and John Gielgud as young, aspiring performers

2. The Good Companions, starring Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwenn,  John Gielgud, Mary Glynne, directed by Victor Saville. This is a perfectly charming British musical, based on an equally charming novel by J.B. Priestley, of all people. It’s about a disparate group of people who form a concert party, a branch of show business we’ve never had in America. This is was a small group of six to eight performers, singers, dancers, and instrumentalists, traveling around the country putting on shows in small venues. Future stars gained experience this way, and talented people graduated to bigger things from such beginnings. That’s the story here, as the lovely Jessie Matthews becomes a star, and the group’s accompanist, played by the young John Gielgud (showing himself to be an excellent leading man if he had wanted to go that way) becomes a successful composer. It manages to be at once a realistic snapshot of 1930’s Britain and an enjoyable musical comedy. It is available on DVD. I highly recommend the book, too.

GrouchoandHarpo mirror scene
One is Groucho and one is Harpo. Can you guess which is which?

3. Duck Soup, starring Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhearn, Raquel Torres, and Edgar Kennedy, directed by Leo McCarey. What can you say about Duck Soup? It has the anthem “Hail, hail Fredonia”! It has Chico and Harpo’s  encounter with the Lemonade Vendor, Edgar Kennedy.  It has Groucho and Harpo’s nightcap and nightshirt-clad mirror scene. It has the big production number, “To war, to war! Fredonia’s going to war!” Which moves on to the chorus, “Oh, hidi hidi ho – They got guns/ We got guns/ All God’s chillun’ got guns…” It parodies everything, with an effect I would not call scattershot but rather all-encompassing. Spies, soldiers, politicians, diplomats, socialites — nobody is safe. Margaret Dumont presides like the great lady she was, firm in her inexplicable devotion to Groucho’s Rufus T. Firefly. It lacks only Chico’s antic piano and Harpo’s lovely harp. It ends in chaos but how could it not?

fredandgingercarioca
Fred and Ginger put their heads together and a new kind of romance is born.

4. Flying Down to Rio, starring Gene Raymond, Dolores del Rio, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Raul Roulien, directed by Thornton Freedland. Imagine the thrill moviegoers of 1933 had, just turning up to an everyday conventional musical and seeing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance together for the first time on film! The glamorous settings and slight, frivolous plot concerning the love troubles of amiable Raymond and exotic Dolores del Rio fades into the background whenever either Astaire or Rogers are onscreen. They each have solo songs and comedy bits (Ginger wears an incredibly pre-code dress for one). Then, visiting a swinging Rio de Janeiro nightclub, where crowds of multi ethnic dancers demonstrate the hot local dance, the Carioca, Fred is inspired to grab Ginger’s hand, saying “Come on, Honey,” and they’re off. They hit the dance floor together and burst into flame, figuratively speaking — Astaire’s fast, light, complex choreography, perfectly executed by both of them, makes watching their dances a wholly new and exciting experience. No one had ever done this before, though they were certainly going to do it again. These dances never get old; the beauty, fun, and joy are just as fresh and irresistible today as they were nearly 90 years ago. And whoever said “she gives him sex and he gives her class” was talking through their hat; both of them had plenty of both.

mov sons of the desert1

Little do Stan and Ollie guess that their wives know all!

5. Sons of the Desert, starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Dorothy Christy, Charlie Chase, Lucien Littlefield, Charita; directed by William A. Seiter. This is quite simply a masterpiece. Everything works. The story has the boys, who live next door to each other, escaping the eagle eyes of their suspicious wives by secretly conspiring to attend a convention of their lodge, the Sons of the Desert, instead of taking a cruise to Hawaii for Oliver’s health. Their plan seems to go smoothly at first. There are some nightclub scenes where the lodge brothers enjoy an excellent floor show featuring Charita, an exotic Filipina dancer pretending to be Hawaiian for the purposes of this entertainment. But then disaster strikes, and it is reported that the ship they were supposed to be traveling on sank enroute. Their wives, wonderfully played by Mae Busch as Mrs. Hardy and Dorothy Christy as Mrs. Laurel, are disconsolate. But Stan and Ollie have been so busy having fun at their convention that they don’t know anything about it. So they arrive home, bearing leis and ukeleles, happy and unsuspecting. The ensuing mayhem when their wives discover the truth is what my old boss Steven H. Scheuer would have described as “a scream from start to finish.”

There’s nothing highbrow or exclusive about these movies; they’re meant for everyday people by hard-working, unassuming, dedicated artists. The wonderful performers, musicians, writers, and everyone else who produced these joyous films at the height of the Great Depression deserve our unending gratitude and love.

6 thoughts on “Comfort Films in a Time of Trouble: 5 from 1933

  1. These are delightful choices. One of my fave scenes in any movie is the mirror scene with Groucho & Harpo Marx. Every time I watch it, it’s like seeing it for the first time.

    Thanks for the introduction to The Good Companions. This blogathon has several new-to-me films, which I know I’ll enjoy, and The Good Companions is one of those.

  2. I love all of your choices, but especially your inclusion of Jessie Matthews. I have recently discovered her and have seen a few of her films. She was quite something, wasn’t she? I’ve never seen Good Companions, but I will be on the look out for it.

  3. When we watch Gold Diggers of 1933, especially “that” scene, the hubby looks at me with pity in his eyes and says “Poor you with that yen for Warren William but married to Guy Kibbee.”

    Sons of the Desert, Duck Soup, and Flying Down to Rio are old favourites and I anticipate that becoming true of The Good Companions. Jessie Matthews is such a delight.

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