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Destry Rides Again (1939) Directed by George Marshall

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 7:04 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,

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(Review originally written at 1 September 2008)

The movie has some really colorful characters, which really makes the movie. Not just the two main characters, played by Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart but more in particular the secondary characters. The characters feel fresh and original, despite being very stereotyped and they provide the movie with most of its fun.
Basically the movie is one great and effective western-comedy, without really ridiculing the western genre. There aren't really that many western-comedies around and of course "Blazing Saddles" is the only movie that first springs to mind. The movie is foremost a comedy, that just happens to be set in America during the 19th century. It also features all of the usual typical western genre elements, such as bar fight, card games, lethal ladies and gunslingers.
It's a real skillfully directed genre movie. Director George Marsall handled the comedy really well and there is a great balance between the more physical humor and the written comedy with its great dialog.

The movie of course also gets made very lively due to its acting performances. James Stewart surely was one fine actor and he is great in his role in this movie. Marlene Dietrich plays a type of character she always played best.
It also on top of that features a great written story that all times remain interesting, despite not having too much action or anything like that in it. It's the type of story that simply amuses without being really too (needlessly) complicated written. It keeps the movie simple but always effective. In it all there also is of course room for some romance between the Dietrich and Stewart character but it's (luckily) not the key element of the movie though. There also is a small amount of drama, so there basically is something for everybody to enjoy in this movie.
This movie in return is a remake of the 1932 movie with the same title, starring genre veteran Tom Nix in the James Stewart role. This movie still remains mostly unknown and also isn't widely available. One more remake of the movie got made in 1954 under the simple title "Destry", which also got directed by George Marshall, who is also the director of this movie version. In 1964 there also was a short lived TV series, with the son of Tom Destry as its central character.
A good movie to watch!
8/10


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Shanghai Express (1932) Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 2:11 PM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 5 February 2008)

The movie has an original concept of a story set almost entirely aboard a train. It nevertheless knows to keep things going in a fast pace and to keep things interesting at all times. This is also thanks to the many characters that are pleasant in the movie. The much present light humor in this movie also makes this an entertaining one to watch as well. It's a movie in which there is always something happening.

But no, not everything in this movie works out as it should and it prevents this movie from being a true classic must-see in my opinion. Basically the core of the movie is that Shanghai Lily and Captain Harvey are still madly in love with each after haven't seen each other for years, before meeting again by coincidence on the Shanghai Express. However the love-story is ridiculously unbelievable, since Clive Brook is too wooden in his performance and Marlene Dietrich is too much of a femme fatale.

The movie is further more a good looking one, with especially some nice Oscar winning cinematography. Von Sternberg's movies from the '30's were among the most visionary of the era. It's one of the reasons why he is such a much praised director.

Movies in which Josef von Sternberg is directing Marlene Dietrich are always something above the usual, this movie forms no exception to this. They made quite a few movies together in the '30's. Von Sternberg by the way also directed quite some movies with Asian themes in them. He must have really liked the culture and he also seemed to have been inspired by its politics, much to the annoyance of the Chinese government itself, who wanted to ban this movie globally

A real good movie to watch!

8/10

Der blaue Engel (1930) Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 7:41 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 24 December 2007)

This is one great and effectively powerful movie, that focuses all around the mental breakdown of a man, who has given up basically everything for the woman he falls in love with. Love, like always, makes blind, causing things to go from bad till worse for the main character Prof. Immanuel Rath, played by the always impressive Emil Jannings.

The movie is a good looking one with these sort of beautiful fake looking German expressionistic backgrounds and sets, that were mostly popular in the '20's and also part of the early '30's, such as this movie is from. It also at times has got some good cinematography. The sound quality and editing of it isn't always great but who can blame them, considering that this movie is from the period when 'talkies' were still in its baby shoes.

It has a story that sort of slowly progresses and has a couple of overlong sequences. All reasons to not regard this movie as one of the best ever made but that doesn't take away that this is a real good movie from Josef von Sternberg.

Things really start to start off after the movie is about halve way though, when Prof. Immanuel Rath's life and career starts to go in a downward spiral.

Who ever said movies are made only to entertain? I'm sorry by I'm just sort of getting sick and tired of people constantly commenting negatively on movies just because they make them depressed. In that regard "Schindler's List" would be the worst movie ever made. Often these sort of depressing movies are among the best since it means they influence your emotions and touch you therefor are effective and also simply really well crafted ones.

Even though it's an heavy movie with a dramatic story, it also has got plenty of entertainment in it. Lots of moments are really fun and just downward comical like, with also some weird and fun characters in it.

With a great role from Emil Jannings, who was perhaps the very best actor of the '20's and even was the first person to receive an Oscar for best actor in a leading role. What made Emil Jannings mostly so great was that he could both play convincingly in a dramatic and comical way, often also in one and the same movie. This is also one of those movies, in which he plays a very serious character who in this movie also gets in some odd and comical situations. Jannings handles these comical moments extremely well, through minimalistic acting. The movie also features Marlene Dietrich in an early role before her real stardom. This movie was really the one that launched her career. Besided her acting skills, she also gets the chance to show of her singing skills in this movie. Though it's a bit funny that she is supposedly a native English speaker in this movie, even though she has a clear fat thick German accent.

A real powerful and effective quality film, from the early days of sound cinema.

8/10

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