fsimovies

Ms. Bryan - 2011-12

Film Study I - The Movies We Watch

The A.F.I. Lists

	Widely considered the first movie to tell a story, The Great Train Robbery (1903) was shot in New Jersey. The film stars Broncho Billy Anderson, who plays a number of roles, and is just 12 minutes long. It may be a bit rough around the edges, but The Great Train Robbery does employ a few sophisticated techniques for 1903 and it tells a pretty good story.
	Between 1916 and 1917, Charlie Chaplin starred in 12 short features at Mutual Studios, among them The Immigrant, The Adventurer, and The Cure. Whether he is playing an immigrant to America, a prison escapee masquerading as a man of wealth, or an alcoholic taking the cure, Chaplin is wonderfully agile, subtle, and entertaining.
	Filmed in Oregon near Cottage Grove in 1927, The General stars Buster Keaton as Johnnie Grey, a young man who desperately wants to serve in The Civil War but is turned down for service because he is too valuable as a train engineer. When his girlfriend is accidentally kidnapped, Johnnie is off on a hilarious train adventure. The end of the film features an amazing train wreck. In fact, this train wreck is the single most expensive shot in the history of the silent cinema in America.
	Near the end of the Silent Era, Charlie Chaplin made The Gold Rush, perhaps his finest work. In this 1925 treasure, The Little Tramp travels to Alaska seeking his fortune. There he finds all kinds of trouble and, of course, love. The Gold Rush features a classic scene in which The Little Tramp and his partner eat a boot, which was really made out of black licorice. In 1942, Chaplin re-released The Gold Rush, eliminating the titles and adding voice-over narration, featuring his own voice as the narrator.
	In Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the legendary Boris Karloff reprises his role as the screen's most misunderstood monster who now longs for a mate of his own. Colin Clive is back as the overly ambitious Dr. Frankenstein, who creates the ill-fated bride (Elsa Lanchester). James Whale, who directed Frankenstein, also directed Bride of Frankenstein, his last horror film.
	Made in 1974, Young Frankenstein may seem out-of-place in a study of the American cinema from its beginnings through the 1940s; however, I use it to teach kids about the evolution of the genre film. And who better to illustrate the final phase of genre evolution (the parody phase) than Mel Brooks, a man who has built his career on parodying genre films. This hilarious movie stars Gene Wilder as the great grandson of the original Dr. Frankenstein who takes up where his famous relative left off. Other stars include Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, and Peter Boyle (you know, Ray's dad on "Everybody Loves Raymond"). And don't forget Cloris Leachman as Frau Blucher, a woman who elicts unusual behavior from horses.
	Released in 1935, It Happened One Night is one of just three films to garner the five major Academy Awards--Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Best Screenplay. It's the story of a spoiled heiress (Colbert) who escapes from her domineering father. She ends up on a bus to New York where she meets a newspaper reporter (Gable). The film is full of laughs. When Clark Gable took off his shirt in one scene and the men of America saw that he wasn't wearing a tee shirt, sales of tee shirts dropped by nearly one-half.
	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was Walt Disney's first full-length, animated color feature film. Disney put everything on the line to make this delightful film, and more than one person thought he was nuts. In the end, he proved them all wrong. Snow White was wildly successful in its initial release and it continues to draw huge crowds when it is re-released.
	Starring Frederic March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, and Teresa Wright, among many others, The Best Years of Our Lives is a realistic picture of the struggles faced by veterans returning from World War II. Harold Russell, an actual Canadian veteran of WWII who had lost both hands in an explosives accident, plays Homer Parrish. Russell won two Academy Awards in 1946 for his role, one as Best Supporting Actor and a special Oscar "for bringing hope to all veterans".
	Made in 1944, Double Indemnity is our first foray into the world of film noir (literally "black cinema"). In this gritty drama, Fred MacMurray (that All-American dad on TV's "My Three Sons") plays a smooth-talking, none-too-honest insurance salesman who becomes involved with the film's femme fatale, played by Barbara Stanwyck (later of TV's "The Big Valley"). Edward G. Robinson is MacMurray's extremely intuitive boss whose indigestion tells him when things just aren't right. Narrated in the classic film noir style, you know right where Double Indemnity is headed, but it's darned fun to go along for the ride, baby.
	One of the finest westerns ever made, Red River (1948) is a "monumental, sweeping and powerful" masterpiece (Variety) which features impassioned performances, stunning cinematography and adventure on a grand scale. John Wayne gives "one of the finest performances of his career" (Cinebooks) as Tom Dunson, a self-made cattle baron who'll do anything to protect his way of life. In his screen debut, Montgomery Clift is Matthew Garth, Dunson's adopted son. Red River also features Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey, Sr., John Ireland, and Noah Berry, Jr.
	Hitchcock often listed Shadow of a Doubt (1942) as his favorite among the 53 films he directed in his 50-year career. In the film, Uncle Charley (Joseph Cotten) comes to visit his sister's All-American yet somewhat prosaic family in Santa Rosa, California. Uncle Charley is especially drawn to his niece Charlie (Teresa Wright), who is named after him and who also idolizes him. But then the plot thickens as two detectives show up tailing Uncle Charley, whom they suspect of being The Merry Widow Murderer. As usual in a Hitchcock film, things are not always what they seem to be.
	Sunset Boulevard (1950) is our second foray into the world of film noir, and like our first, was directed by Billy Wilder. Many critics list Sunset Boulevard as the finest film ever made by Hollywood about Hollywood. William Holden stars as the film's dead narrator, and Gloria Swanson delivers a scary performance as the "has been" star of silent films, Norma Desmond. Students will no doubt recognize some of the film's better known lines. "I am big. It's the pictures that got small!"
	Considered by many to be the best musical ever produced, Singin' in the Rain (1952) tells the musical story of Hollywood's transition from silent movies to the talkies. Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, this movie features some of the best musical sequences in motion picture history, including Donald O'Connor's hilarious "Make 'Em Laugh," "Good Morning'", and, of course, "Singin' in the Rain".
	In the 22 years I have been teaching Film Study, the only film I have used every single year is Some Like It Hot (1959), our third film directed by Billy Wilder. After witnessing a crime, musicians Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon disguise themselves and join an all-girl band, which also includes Marilyn Monroe. Jack Lemmon is simply outrageous as Daphne, especially when he attracts the attention of Osgood Fielding, played by Joe E. Brown. Some Like It Hot is always a hit with kids.
	Hitchcock's longest movie (at 136 minutes), North by Northwest (1959) features Cary Grant as the ad executive Roger O. Thornhill, a man who is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He thinks his life is improving when he meets the beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) on a train to Chicago, but he might be wrong. In one scene, Thornhill is chased by a machine gun toting cropdusting plane.