5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1932

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When I asked Siri for a number between one and one-hundred this afternoon and she gave me "32" -- meaning I'd now have to list my favorite movies from the Movies of 1932 -- I groaned a little because I thought it'd be a tough one. Last week's edition of my "Siri Says" series was so easy with 1995 -- heading back to the 1930s had me worried it'd be skimpy pickins. I needn't groan though, because once I got to looking it turned out I've seen a ton of 1932 somehow. Which surprised me at first, but then I noticed there's one thread threaded between most of the titles, and that's the Pre-Code thing. 

1932 was riiiiiiight before the MPAA started whittling away all the fun stuff from the movies, all the sex and sleaze and violence, and by 1932 they had gotten real sleazy indeed. It was terrific! Movies were sexy and fun in 1932. I adore movies from this exact moment in time... and it doesn't hurt that the actors they had reveling in the fun-time sleaze were your Gary Coopers, your Charles Farrells, your Joel McCreas and Clark Gables. Ooh your Chester Morrises! (Love me some Chester Morris.) Top tier stud-muffins every one. I mean this was the year that introduced both Cary Grant and Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan, for goodness sake...

... or should I say badness. Very naughty thoughts indeed, 1932. Very naughty. That said when it came time to whittle my own list down to a favorite five titles it was more violence than sex that floated to the top -- this was a really terrific year for Horror Movies. All but one of my tip top faves is a Horror Movie! It might be a little early to blame this exact Horror boom on what was about to happen in Europe -- although like right now there was probably a fear of Fascism floating in the air. It's maybe more about the economic anxieties of the Great Depression though? Also... like now, haha funny enough. Sigh. On that note I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1932

Freaks

(dir. Tod Browning)

-- released on February 20th 1932 --

Vampyr

(dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer)

-- released on May 6th 1932 --

Shanghai Express

(dir. Josef von Sternberg)

-- released on February 12th 1932 --

The Mummy

(dir. Karl Freund)

-- released on December 22nd 1932 --

The Old Dark House

(dir. James Whale)

-- released on October 20th 1932 --

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Runners-up: Grand Hotel (dir. Goulding), Red-Headed Woman (dir. Jack Conway), Murders in the Rue Morgue (dir. Robert Florey), Tarzan the Ape Man (dir. W.S. Van Dyke), White Zombie (dir. Victor Halperin)...
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... Devil and the Deep (dir. Marion Gering), Rain (dir. Lewis Milestone), The Island of Lost Souls (dir. Erle C. Kenton), Trouble in Paradise (dir. Lubitsch), Bird of Paradise (dir. King Vidor), Blonde Venus (dir. Von Sternberg), The Most Dangerous Game (dir. Irving Pichel)

Never seen: Scarface (dir. Hawks), Horse Feathers (dir. Norman Z. McLeod), Three on a Match (dir. Mervyn Leroy), Call Her Savage (dir. John Francis Dillon), A Farewell to Arms (dir. Borzage), No Man of Her Own (dir. Wesley Ruggles), After Tomorrow (dir. Borzage), The First Year (dir. William K. Howard), Wild Girl (dir. Raoul Walsh), Red Dust (dir. Victor Fleming), Back Street (dir. John M. Stahl)

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What are your favorite movies of 1932?

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Good Morning, World

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George Stevens' 1943 comedy romance The More the Merrier starring Joel McCrea (seen here behaving as if he'd never taken a shower before in his entire life) and Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn as the gruff old fella that brings those two pretty young things together was on TCM this past week (thx Mac) and it's a delight, but halfway through it the boyfriend turned to me and was like, "Haven't we seen this before?"

We hadn't, but we had just recently seen part of the 1966 Toyko-set remake called Walk Don't Run that has Cary Grant playing the old-timer who makes a match between Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar. That one's also got its charm. It got me thinking that they should probably try to make this story again some time? But who could play the McCrea role...

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Seems to me that Armie Hammer oughta think about remaking a Joel McCrea movie, they've got an incredibly similar thing going on (and I don't only mean how they both look in short shorts) pic.twitter.com/5OlcFV9Yew

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 4, 2018

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Yeah. Just saying, Hollywood. Give it some thought. And
a happy birthday to Joel McCrea, born 113 years ago today.

Great Moments In Movie Staches

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Some of you probably picture Judy Garland getting slapped in the face on the stage of the Academy Awards or perhaps Barbra Streisand's afro when you hear the words "A Star is Born" -- which we'll be hearing a lot of this fall / winter thanks to the good reception that Bradley Cooper's movie has gotten so far -- but me, my first thought is of the 1937 version's director William Wellman's mustache, because quality stache. He's definitely on the list of Hottest Directors of All Time, right? Total looker. 

I also love the fact that he got started in Hollywood because Douglas Fairbanks was OBSESSED with him - Fairbanks saw him playing hockey and told him, wink wink nudge nudge, he was attractive enough to be an actor and got him his first gig. (Wellman didn't last long as an actor though because he reportedly found the profession "unmanly.") Fairbanks also let him use his polo field as a landing strip since Wellman was a WWI pilot who kept up the habit after the war (a skill that came in handy when he went on to direct Best Picture winner Wings). 

Although he liked making his airplane movies it's pretty astonishing, the breadth of genres that Wellman tore through over the course of his forty year career - sure he pranced about in uniforms with Gary Cooper but he also gave Barbara Stanwyck some of her finest roles in decidedly feminine pictures like Night Nurse and Lady of Burlesque (not to mention he co-directed the barn-burner of a pre-code feminist film that is Ruth Chatterton's Female). 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Palm Beach Story (1942) 

Tom Jeffers: So this fellow gave you the look? 

Gerry Jeffers: At his age it was more of a blink. 

Tom Jeffers: Seven hundred dollars! 

And sex didn't even enter into it, I suppose? 

Gerry Jeffers: Sex always has something to do with it, dear. 

The great Claudette Colbert was born on this day in 1903.

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1942

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And now we're back, from outer space -- that is if "my living-room floor" falls under the definition of "outer space" (there's no gravity when your spine gives in) -- and let us not look upon each other with sad looks upon our faces but rather joy, for it's time for one of our "Siri Says" series, in which I ask my cell phone to choose a number between 1 and 100 and we then choose our five favorite movies from the corresponding year. 

Today we got stuck with 1942 (all of these movies are turning 75 this year!) and at first I thought this would be a tough one - a lot of titles weren't jumping off the year's Wikipedia list at me. But then I started investigating closer, and realized I'd just forgotten the titles of several movies - there are actually a whole lot of movies from 1942 that I love. So many that narrowing it down to only 5 was a tough nut to crack. 

I managed, with some elbow grease brain-wise, but the runners-up should be thought of as a special bunch too. I mean a Hitchcock movie actually didn't make my top five - that's when you know something's nutty...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1942

Casablanca

(dir. Michael Curtiz)

-- released on November 26th 1942 --

Now, Voyager

(dir. Irving Rapper)

-- released on October 31st 1942 --

The Palm Beach Story

(dir. Preston Sturges)

-- released on December 10th 1942 --

 To Be Or Not To Be

(dir. Ernst Lubitsch)

-- released on March 6th 1942 --

Cat People

(dir. Jacques Tourneur)

-- released on December 25th 1942 --

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Runners-up: Bambi (dir. James Algar etc.),  Saboteur (dir. Alfred Hitchcock), The Corpse Vanishes (dir. Wallace Fox), Woman of the Year (dir. George Stevens), Gentlemen Jim (dir. Raoul Walsh), The Black Swan (dir. Henry King), The Pride of the Yankees (dir. Sam Wood), The Man Who Came to Dinner (dir. William Keighley)

Never Seen: Mrs. Miniver (dir. William Wyler),  

The Magnificent Ambersons (dir. Orson Welles)

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What are your 5 favorite movies of 1942?

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Good Morning, Joel McCrea

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The terrific and underrated Joel McCrea was born 110 years ago today! We've liked Joel very much in everything we've seen him in, although what we've seen him in probably hasn't been nearly enough given his fifty year career. 

Stepping aside from his undisputed classics like Sullivan's Travels, three films that he made in 1932 at the tender age of 26 are faves -- Bird of Paradise, The Sport Parade, and The Most Dangerous Game are all worth seeing, even if sometimes it's just for extensive locker-room scenes. (Cough The Sport Parade Cough.) 

Bird of Paradise has him in a skimpy sarong for 90% of the movie but it's actually an entertaining movie in its own right, nudity aside. Anyway we've posted some nice pics of Joel before, click here for that. (Oh and his son was terribly hot too, click here for a picture.) 

There shots here are from George Stevens' 1943 comedy The More the Merrier - a title that takes on special significance, seeing Joel standing there in the shower. I'm more and I'll make you merry, Joel!

But I actually haven't seen this movie; have any of you? The entire thing is uploaded to YouTube in chunks, click here for the first part. 

It co-stars Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn and the little bit that I watched (this scene) for this post looks delightful, I'm gonna have to watch the entirety when I get the chance. 

What's your favorite Joel McCrea movie?

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Good Morning, World

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I don't remember what led me down a Joel McCrea path yesterday, I think it was a side-track off of that Lew Ayres road I was on, but it led me to some good stuff so let's wander here for a hot minute. It's always a good time in McCrea-ville. The above is from a 1932 movie called The Sport Parade, which we're all fortunate fell right before they started enforcing the Hayes Code, because hello.

Here's the whole scene:

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It's making me feel frisky!

You know what they say. Boys will be boys will be boys will be boys. (Seriously though - they can't keep their hands off of each other.)

Speaking of McCreas and homoeroticism, you probably should check out the pictures I posted over at the Tumblr of Joel's son Jody, himself an actor (best known for playing a dumb-ass in those Beach Blanket Bingo flicks), having his own work-out-related shenanigans with a pre-Bond Roger Moore. They're something.

But back to papa Joel. I'm stunned - STUNNED - to see with a little search that I've never posted any pictures of Joel before. That just doesn't seem right at all, I think the search engine is lying to me. But that's what it's saying. So we're making up for that. Hit the jump, I've got some pictures to share! (Oh and the skinny-dipping shots are from the - also pre-code obviously - 1932 flick Bird of Paradise.)