The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writer:

Samson Raphaelson

Starring:

Margaret Sullavan

James Stewart

Frank Morgan

Joseph Schildkraut

Blurb:

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other’s anonymous pen pal.

Thoughts:

You’ve Got Mail was inspired by this movie. Even if you didn’t know, specific conversations in the film should clue you in. At least two are almost verbatim. The Shop Around the Corner is not the original of this story, though. That would belong to a Hungarian play titled Parfumerie by Miklós László. You’ve Got Mail is also not the only adaption. I have another version of this story that is coming up relatively soon, In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland. I clearly like this story. I should probably look into the play.

This film is from the 40s, so it’s very dated, especially in its views of women. Clara, Margaret Sullavan, talks a lot about how she won’t have to work anymore because she’ll be married soon. Kralik, James Stewart, discusses supporting a family on his salary.

I want to take a step back and focus on that for a moment. Kralik was a sales clerk. He had worked at the store the longest, so had more responsibilities, but he was still a sales clerk. There was also another clerk there that was married and had children. They were able to support a family on the salary of a sales clerk. Eighty years ago, one person could support themselves, in a city, on the salary of a retail worker. Sure, this was set in Hungary, but it was made for American audiences. Can you imagine a salesperson in a department store being able to support a family nowadays? It’s mind-boggling.

Back to the movie. Writing letters and falling in love in that way is one of my favorite tropes. It feels like the ultimate romantic storyline. Two people, who’ve never met, fall in love through words. In some cases, it’s so much easier to be yourself through words. Of course, it’s also easier to deceive, but I prefer to think of the previous scenario.

Obviously, I’m keeping this movie. It’s one I re-watch fairly frequently, even though I only own it on DVD. I should probably look into upgrading that, actually.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Sidney Buchanan

Lewis R. Foster

Starring:

Jean Arthur

James Stewart

Claude Rains

Edward Arnold

Blurb:

A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn’t back down.

Thoughts:

When I last watched this movie I had a more positive outlook on my country. I ended up watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington through different eyes this time around. At many points through my re-watch I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. There were scenes that felt straight out of a propaganda film. It was in love with the ideals of the United States even as it bashed the lawmakers. There was always this hope that one man could change it all. They just had to try.

Imagine my surprise when I read the films Wikipedia entry and discovered that senators of the day accused the film of being anti-American and pro-communist. Several senators spoke out against it. I’m not sure how you can watch that movie and think it’s attacking the US unless you are complicit in the same crimes as the characters in the movie.

There were, of course, dated jokes and treatment of women. However, they did a good job acknowledging that Smith wouldn’t be where he was without the help of Saunders, Jean Arthur’s character. I do wonder, though, where the little girls will all be going while the little boys are off to a camp in the middle of the country.

Even watching it with a different mindset I enjoyed Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I like hopeful, though, I do find that hard to pair with government. Stewart does an amazing job portraying a naïve man who just wants to do good. The ending was abrupt but I actually liked that. I didn’t need to see an epilogue, I think it would have lessened the impact.

Next up, The Shop Around the Corner, another Jimmy Steward movie.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Directors:

Victor Fleming

George Cukor

Mervyn LeRoy

Norman Taurog

Richard Thorpe

King Vidor

Writers:

Noel Langley

Florence Ryerson

Edgar Allan Woolf

Starring:

Judy Garland

Frank Morgan

Ray Bolger

Bert Lahr

Jack Haley

Billie Burke

Margaret Hamilton

Blurb:

Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well.

Thoughts:

If you don’t have a horrible story to tell about working on The Wizard of Oz, did you really work on it? Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch, got third-degree burns on her face and hands. Her stunt woman was horribly injured as well. Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Woodman, was admitted in critical condition to a hospital when he had an allergic reaction to the aluminum dust they used for his costume. Jack Haley, the Tin Woodman in the movie, ended up getting an eye infection from the aluminum paste they switched to. Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow, received permanent lines to his face caused by the glue they used for his mask. To top it all off, they sprinkled asbestos all over the set to look like snow and Judy Garland, Dorothy, got to lie in a pile of it.

All of that and so much more happened with this movie. When you read back over it all, it feels like a miracle that it was even made. That could be my ignorance of the behind the scenes of making movies, though.

I was introduced to this movie by my grandmother when I was relatively young. I loved it. Unlike my sister and brother, the flying monkeys never bothered me. I was too caught up in the music and bright colors. I loved Dorothy. I honestly think this movie may have been what started my love of fantasy.

It is yet another movie that has been added to the US Library of Congress. This might make my movie taste basic, but I don’t care. This movie is a classic and should be watched by everyone.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Director:

William Cottrell

David Hand

Wilfred Jackson

Larry Morey

Perce Pearce

Ben Sharpsteen

Writer:

Ted Sears

Richard Creedon

Otto Englander

Dick Rickard

Earl Hurd

Merrill De Maris

Dorothy Ann Blank

Webb Smith

Starring:

Adriana Caselotti

Roy Atwell

Eddie Collins

Pinto Colvig

Billy Gilbert

Otis Harlan

Scotty Mattraw

Lucille La Verne

Blurb:

Exiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.

Thoughts:

What makes Snow White a movie to own is that it is the first full length animated film. It’s history.

They didn’t think that a full-length children’s animated movie would make money, or so the story goes. Walt Disney pushed to have this completed, creating a horrible work environment for his artists, and went so far as to mortgage his house to pay for it. It then became a critical and commercial success and is one of the highest-earning animated features, adjusted for inflation.

I’m not a big fan of the story of Snow White. It hasn’t aged well. The Huntsmen comes off as rapey, and there is at least one racist moment. There’s also a ton of jokes about women that are insulting. The music is fine, but nowhere near where we are now in terms of musical numbers in animation. The artwork is pretty, but it’s more of a look at how far we’ve come way. All in all, it’s not a movie that I need to own.

However, without Snow White, we wouldn’t have The Wizard of Oz as we know it. This, incidentally, is the next movie I’m watching. It’s also one of my all-time favorites. So, that alone keeps it in my library.

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Recently, for an unknown reason, I organized all of my movies by release year. It worked out to around three-hundred and seventy movies. I ended up purging a few older Disney movies available on Disney+ that I didn’t feel the need to own anymore. Still, that’s a lot of movies.

I tend only to buy movies when I really like them. Sometimes if it’s a movie I liked and I find it cheap. Those movies tend to be digital, though. I’m hoping to find movies that I can get rid of, for space reasons. Because of my buying strategy, I don’t expect to find many.

My oldest movie is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which came out in 1937. Followed by The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I want to make a blog post about each movie, but I might combine movie posts. If I’ve just got a couple of sentences worth of thoughts, I don’t see the point in posting. More than likely, I’ll end up varying because some movies I will have stronger opinions on.

I don’t know what spurred on this desire. At first, the compiling of the list was just out of curiosity. It’s not something I’ve ever thought about, and I wanted to know. Once the spreadsheet was created, it felt only natural to watch them all. So that’s what I will be doing in 2021. I doubt that I’ll do it all in one year, it will depend on the year, but my plan is to watch the movies in order with no jumping. At least now I won’t have to agonize over what to watch.