The False Ducks Blahg

  Back at the beginning of April I posted my first blahg about my goal of watching as many films from 1939 that I possibly can.  1939 has always been touted as a banner year for films with great films like “The Wizard Of Oz,” “Gone With The Wind,” “Stagecoach,” “Ninotchka,” and “Goodbye Mr. Chips” being some of the classics released.  In my blahg MY 1939 FILMS WATCH LIST – PART ONE, I provided a write-up of sorts on the first 30 films I’ve watched from my list and then on April 22nd I published MY 1939 FILMS WATCH LIST – PART TWO.  At that time, I had watched 75 films on my way to 100 so I reviewed the next set of 30 up film 60.  My plan was not to publish a part three until I had reached my goal.  Last night, I watched number 101.  I thought it was 100 but I’d lost count and overshot the magic number.  Regardless, here’s part three and a recap of films 61 through 101.

   Let’s start off by recapping the complete list of 101 films I’ve watched.  This last 41 I’d refer to as the good, the bad, and the snooze fest.  That last phrase refers to when I fell asleep.  Still, don’t let that deter you.  Here’s the complete list of 101 films from 1939 that I’ve viewed:

1. A Child Is Born
2. Disputed Passage
3. We Are Not Alone
4. Dust Be My Destiny
5. The Girl From Mexico
6. Frontier Marshall
7. Good Girls Go To Paris
8. Honolulu
9. The Three Musketeers
10. Cheer Boys Cheer
11. The Amazing Mr. Williams
12. Off The Record
13. The Frozen Limits (fell asleep)
14. Where’s That Fire
15. The Kid from Kokomo
16. The Ice Follies of 1939
17. All Women Have Secrets (1939)
18. A Girl Must Live (1939)
19. $1000 a Touchdown (1939)
20. …One Third of a Nation… (1939)
21. Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)
22. Arizona Legion (1939)
23. Persons in Hiding
24. Allegheny Uprising
25. Ask A Policeman (Will Hayes)
26. Gone With The Wind
27. Society Lawyer
28. Code of the Secret Service (1939)
29. Secret Service of the Air (1939)
30. Young Abe Lincoln
31. The Little Princess
32. East Side of Heaven
33. Destry Rides Again
34. Dodge City
35. Smashing The Money Ring
36. The Wizard Of Oz
37. Midnight
38. Stagecoach
39. Made For Each Other
40. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
41. 20,000 Men a Year (1939)
42. Flying Deuces
43. Only Angels Have Wings
44. Judge Hardy and Son
45. Charlie McCarthy Detective
46. Discoveries
47. Across the Plains
48. Back Door to Heaven
49. Hitler – Beast of Berlin
50. Barricade
51. In Name Only
52. King of the Underworld
53. At The Circus
54. The Real Glory
55. Women On The Wind
56. Gunga Din
57. Rulers of the Sea
58. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
59. The Hound Of The Baskervilles
60. Beau Geste
61. After The Thin Man
62. The Mysterious Miss X
63. The Hardys Ride High
64. Three Smart Girls Grow Up
65. First Love
66. Ambush
67. Bad Boy
68. Bad Lands
69. Bad Little Angel
70. I Met A Murderer
71. Boy Friend
72. Coast Guard
73. Boy Trouble
74. Disbarred
75. She Married a Cop
76. The Light That Failed
77. Night Work
78. Million Dollar Legs
79. Island Of Lost Men
80. Slightly Honorable
81. The Man In The Iron Mask
82. Shipyard Sally
83. My Son Is A Criminal
84. Smuggled Cargo
85. Wife, Husband and Friend
86. 6,000 Enemies
87. Homicide Bureau
88. S.O.S. Tidal Wave
89. News Is Made at Night
90. Sergeant Madden
91. Panama Patrol
92. Rio
93. When Tomorrow Comes
94. Invitation to Happiness
95. Taming of the West
96. They Made Me A Criminal
97. The Spy in Black
98. Espionage Agent
99. The Housekeeper’s Daughter
100. Undercover Agent
101.  Love Affair

Again, the majority of films on this list have not had DVD releases so I’ve been downloading copies of the more obscure films with the result that some of the versions I have found have ranged from excellent all the way down to just fair.  

   61.)  After The Thin Man.  Ah, William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles.  This is the second film in The Thin Man series.  A whodunit murder mystery and a really early film for James Stewart.  DVD release and well worth watching.

   62.)  The Mysterious Miss X.  Fast talking murder mystery with no real stars.  Mabel Todd adds some comedy but gets annoying after a while.  I fell asleep part way through but then woke up to discover the identity of the killer.  Can’t even remember much else about it.

    63.)  The Hardys Ride High. In the first 30, part one, I reviewed “Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever.”  In the second batch I reviewed “Judge Hardy And Son.”  Now, in part three, we have the last Andy Hardy film released in 1939.  This time, Andy and his family are living the high-life in New York, thinking they’re going to inherit two million dollars.  It’s a real test of the small town Hardy morals.  Still, very entertaining and available on DVD.

   64.)  Three Smart Girls Grow Up. Ah, Deanna Durbin.  She was the young woman who basically turned around the fortunes of Universal Pictures.  I dedicated an entire blahg to her in 2013 after learning she had passed away.  You can check it out at THE PUBLIC & PRIVATE LIFE OF DEANNA DURBIN.  This is the sequel to the popular “Three Smart Girls” from 1936.  Deanna’s mixed up in her older sisters’ love affairs with humorous results.  You can never go wrong with a Deanna Durbin film.  Oh, and Robert Cummings is in this one.  He and Deanna Durbin made a handful of movies together with “It Started With Eve” being one of their best.

   65.)  First Love.  Deanna Durbin back again with the second of her films released in 1939.  This time her costar is Robert Stack.  It’s basically a Cinderella story where she’s an orphan who is sent to live with her rich New York relatives who aren’t so very nice to her.  Great singing, some nice acting, and Eugene Pallette as Deanna’s uncle who is the only nice relative she has.  Over course it’s sappy.  Of  course the ending is happy.  Just watch it.

   66.)  Ambush. Definitely a “B” picture with no great stars.  I should add that Lloyd Nolan is in this one and I think he’s a fine actor.  He went on to direct films as well.  Four bandits rob a California bank.  Gladys Swarthout is the sister of one of the gang members and she wants no part of it.  Lloyd Nolan is a truck driver who gets hijacked and tries to help out the female lead.  I enjoyed it.

   67.)  Bad Boy.  I couldn’t remember this one so I had to check out the IMDB summary to recall the plot:  “Johnny Fraser (Johnny Downs) leaves his mother (Helen MacKellar) in their small home town and sets out for the big city. He obtains a job with a large firm of architects. Steve Carson (Archie Robbins), a fellow employee, is constantly flaunting the money he has won at the race track. Johnny also bets the races, but loses heavily and takes some of the firm’s money to cover his losses. Steve also introduces Johnny to Madelon Kirby (Rosalind Keith), a gold-digging night club singer. When the firm’s boss McNeil (Holmes Herbert) learns that Johnny has embezzled some money, he fires him and has him jailed. Johnny’s mother comes to his aid, but he cannot find work when he is released. Through Steve Carson, Johnny becomes the head of a shady firm, Business Engineers, and is making a lot of money. Madelon returns and she and Johnny are married, but he is unaware that Steve is not only double-crossing him in the business but with Madelon also.”  I remember the ending now, sad.  Still, I’m glad I watched it even if I couldn’t remember it.

   68.)  Bad Lands.  From Wikipedia:  “In 1875, a posse headed by Sheriff Bill Cummings is held at bay by Apache warriors. The posse members are picked off, one by one, until only the Sheriff is left.”  I definitely remember this one.  It only runs about 70 minutes but has a good cast.  It’s a remake of John Ford’s 1934 film, “The Lost Patrol.”  Well worth watching.

   69.)  Bad Little Angel.   Okay, I was obviously working my way through an alphabetical list with “Bad Boy”, “Bad Lands,” and now “Bad Little Angel.”  Another orphan story, starring another former child star named Virginia Weidler.  Virginia is living with an old widow woman who imparts the advice that when in trouble, Virginia should randomly open the bible and plunk her finger down on a passage and do what it says.  After the old lady dies, Virginia selects a verse about Egypt and takes all the money she has and goes to Egypt, New Jersey.  There she finds friends and a new family and helps everyone out of trouble with her random bible scriptures.  Not much of a plot but Virginia is the best thing about this movie.

  70.)  I Met A Murderer.  Really made on a shoestring budget.  James Mason is the murderer who is hiding out on the Isle of Wight.  Pamela Mason, the real life wife of James Mason, is helping him hide out…or is she?  The story is slight but the scenery is gorgeous. 

  71.)  Boy Friend.  And yet another child star, Jane Withers, trying to help her brother the cop take down a criminal organization.  The thing is he’s undercover and she thinks he’s gone bad.  She does some singing and also pursues a military cadet as a love interest.  Typical Little Miss Fix-It role for Withers.

  72)  Coast Guard.  Randolph Scott and Ralph Bellamy as two different members of the Coast Guard.  Bellamy is friendly and by-the-books while Scott is reckless and devil-may-care.  Some good action and some unbelievable action.  This is the third movie starring Randolph Scott to be released in 1939.  I reviewed “Frontier Marshall” in part one and “20,000 Men A Year” in part two.  Scott is a solid actor.

  73.)  Boy Trouble. This is one of two films the great comic actor Charlie Ruggles made in 1939 as the character Homer C. Fitch.  Homer’s wife thinks he’s in a rut so she adopts two boys.  The problem is that Homer hates little boys.  Some humour and some melodrama.  Donald O’Connor plays one of the boys.

  74.)  Disbarred.  How do I explain this one?  A lawyer gets disbarred for working with the underworld.  He coaches an up-and-coming female lawyer and tricks her into defending his gangster cronies and getting them off.  Of course she figures it out and has to work with the District Attorney’s office to go after her mentor.  Not great but not bad.

  75.)  She Married a Cop.   Remember I said these films ranged from the good, the bad, and the snooze fest?  This is the snooze fest.  All I remember about this is a woman hires a police officer to be the singing voice of “Paddy,” the cartoon pig.  It’s clearly an early Porky Pig but the cop doesn’t like it.  He thinks he’s going to be a star and not provide vocals for a cartoon pig.  That’s what I recall before I fell asleep.

  77.)  The Light That Failed.  I like Ronald Colman.  “Random Harvest” with Greer Garson and Ronald Colman is one of my favourite films.  “The Light That Failed” is based on an 1891 novel by Rudyard Kipling.  In part two of my series, I reviewed “Gunga Din” from 1939 which was based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling.  Colman is a British Soldier from the Madhist War in the Sudan who retires after a head wound and then takes up painting.  He eventually goes blind and he has to cope with the people in his life, not being a soldier, and losing his eyesight.  A very nice drama.

   77.)  Night Work. A sequel to number 73, “Boy Trouble.”  Charlie Ruggles as the character Homer C. Fitch is now managing a hotel.  The grandfather of the boy played by Donald O’Connor wants to take his grandson back to live with him unless Ruggles can prove he’s tough enough.  Some sight gags and William Frawley along as a big-mouth character.  Watch it only if you’ve watched “Boy Trouble.”

  78.)  Million Dollar Legs. Another in the snooze-fest category.  The Million Dollar Legs belong to Betty Grable but she doesn’t have much to do in the film.  It’s a college film about creating a rowing team and bucking the system of the administration.  I think I dozed off for a little bit during the film.

  79.)  Island Of Lost Men. Great title but another “put me to sleep” film.  From IMDB:  “A Chinese general, who disappeared in the Malaysian jungles with stolen government funds, is sought by his cabaret-singing daughter who wants to clear his name.”  That’s more than I remember.  Broderick Crawford is a bad guy and plays it well.  Crawford was also in #54 “The Real Glory” and #60 “Beau Geste” which I reviewed in part two.

  80.)  Slightly Honorable.  Broderick Crawford is back again as the pal to Pat O’Brien who is a lawyer framed for murder.  Eve Arden is along as his snappy secretary.  I fell asleep before the reveal but had to go back and watch it again because it was worth it.  A young Ruth Terry steals every scene she’s in.  

81.)  The Man In The Iron Mask.  Based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, this is the story of royal French twins separated at birth.  One is raised as King and rules as a tyrant.  The other is raised by d’Artagnan of the Four Musketeers fame.  The cruel brother meets his twin and imprisons him and covers his face with an iron mask.  Will d’Artagnan and the others save the good twin?  You’ll just have to watch it.  A great cast in a great swashbuckler.

   82.)  Shipyard Sally.  A musical comedy with Gracie Fields.  Last year, I wrote a blahg entitled HAVE YOU WATCHED ANY GOOD MOVIES LATELY?  In that blahg, I reviewed two later films by Gracie Fields, “Holy Matrimony” and “Molly and Me.”  They also starred Monty Woolley.  Gracie Fields was a national British treasure and “Shipyard Sally” was probably very popular in its day.  To be honest, I fell asleep.  I wanted to give it more attention so I went back to it after a week.  Gracie and her Father run a pub in a town where there are shipyards.  The government decides to close the shipyards and Sally heads off to meet with a member of parliament to have him change his mind.  Cute piece of fluff.  I liked Gracie’s singing but it was weaker than the two other ones with Monty Woolley.

  83.)  My Son Is A Criminal.  This one had an interesting premise.  A retired police chief hopes his son will follow in his footsteps to join the police force.  The retired chief, however, can’t keep himself from investigating the new crime gang terrorizing town.  Unbeknownst to the chief, his son is the criminal mastermind behind the new crime wave.  No real stars to speak of but enjoyable.

  84.)  Smuggled Cargo.  A corrupt group of fruit growers take advantage of migrant workers and cheat them out of their rightful wages.  The son of one of the growers, goes after the gang and sets everything right.  Again, no recognizable cast but entertaining none the less.

  85.)  Wife, Husband and Friend. I watched this film after watching “Smuggled Cargo” because there was a great character actor in both films.  George Barbier always played grumpy husbands, cops, or overweight politicians.  In this film, he co-stars with Loretta Young as his daughter and Warner Baxter as his son-in-law.  Father-in-law’s advice:  Don’t let your wife think she’s a singer.  It’ll drive you nuts and ruin your life.  Of course the son-in-law wants to be a happy husband so he encourages his wife.  The problem is she’s not very good.  He has a voice and gets tricked into performing on stage by the “and friend” but he gets stage-fright and can’t perform.  It all works out in the end but George Barbier as the father-in-law could have said “I told you so” and he’d have been right.  He steals all his scenes.

  86.)  6,000 Enemies. Walter Pidgeon is lawyer Steve Donegan who gets frame for accepting a bribe and is sent up to prison.  The prison is unfortunately full of convicts that Donegan sent up there and they all want a piece of him.  He has to survive long enough to prove his innocence.  Walter Pidgeon does not disappoint. 

87.)  Homicide Bureau.  A police officer is demoted because of his off-the-books ways.  He wants to solve a high profile murder but he’s not assigned the case.  He also runs afoul of then befriends the new head of the police lab run by Rita Hayworth.  Clocks in at 58 minutes but it gets the story told.

88.)  S.O.S. Tidal Wave. Where do I begin with this one?  Well, it was on my to watch list because George Barbier was in it.  It’s really about the early days of television and Barbier plays Uncle Dan Carter who hosts a kiddy show with his ventriloquist dummy pal.  But the movie isn’t even about that.  It’s about political corruption and a reporter who won’t don’t the right thing and expose the corruption because his wife and son are threatened.  Uncle Dan tries to help but that goes badly.  On election day, the crooks try to prevent people from voting by broadcasting footage of a tidal wave destroying the east coast of the United States.  People run around in panic.  The footage is actually from the 1933 film “Deluge.”  It’s too crazy to believe but oh so entertaining.

  89.)  News Is Made at Night. I like a good newspaper story film.  I was hoping better from this film.  IMDB description:  Newspaper editor will do almost anything to increase circulation. He campaigns to free a condemned man while accusing a wealthy ex-criminal of a string of murders.  Tries too hard to be a comedy.  George Barbier is in this one as well but the story isn’t strong enough.

90.)  Sergeant Madden.   Wallace Berry is Irish police office Madden.  In 1920s New York, he adopts the son of his partner who dies.  He raises him along with his own son and hopes that both will become police officers one day.  When they grow up, the biological son becomes a bad copy and the adopted son is true, righteous, and loyal.  Directed by the great Josef von Sternberg.  He wasn’t too happy about how it turned out but I enjoyed it.

91.)  Panama Patrol.  Major Phillip Waring, the head of the Cipher Bureau in Washington gets called into the office when he’s supposed to be getting married.  He has to decipher a code that leads to a spy ring and to him keeping his fiancée waiting for him to come back and marry her.  It’s called Panama Patrol because the gang’s secret plans are to destroy the Panama Canal.  They never go there and the film is less than exciting.  Still, I stayed awake through this one, so that’s something. 

  92.)  Rio.  This one had a lot going for it.  Basil Rathbone who is a British con-artist who gets arrested in Paris and sent to a prison on an island off the coast of Rio.  He tells his new wife to leave him but she follows him to Rio and works in a nightclub.  She plans to wait out his ten year term there.  Unfortunately he gets bitter in prison and she falls for a washed up drunken architect played by Robert Cummings.  Rathbone escapes from the inescapable prison but then when he meets up with his wife, the movie is over in five minutes.  Good story that could have been better.  At least in this film, they got to Rio unlike no Panama locales in “Panama Patrol.” 

  93.)  When Tomorrow Comes.  Despite what critics thought of this film, I liked it.  I’m a big fan of Charles Boyer and he and Irene Dunne are a delight in this film.  It starts off as a comedy but them becomes a melodrama.  Boyer and Dunne fall in love but he can’t leave his wife because she has mental health issues.  This was the second pairing of Boyer and Dunne in 1939.  They appeared in the very popular “Love Affair” and the studio was hoping for lightning to strike twice.  “When Tomorrow Comes” didn’t do as well but not every movie needs a happy ending. 

  94.)  Invitation to Happiness.  I wanted to see another Irene Dunne film.  This is one she made with Fred MacMurray and Charlie Ruggles.  Irene Dunne’s father invests in a prize-fighter played by MacMurray.  Dunne falls in love with the fighter and marries him.  They also have a son.  He’s always off training and trying to win the next fight but not spending enough time with her or the kid.  Again, comedy in the beginning and melodrama by the end.  This was another one that could have been much more than it was. 

  95.)  Taming of the West.  Short, 55 minute western.  The new Sheriff, Wild Bill Saunders, played by Wild Bill Elliott, has to clean up the town.  Nothing special here but it was apparently the first in a series of four films to feature the Wild Bill Saunders character. 

  96.)  They Made Me A Criminal.  This is the second John Garfield film on my list.  The first, #4, was “Dust Be My Destiny.”  In this one, Garfield is a boxer who is believed to have murdered someone and is advised to go on the run and change his name.  He ends up in Arizona on a farm and meets the East Side Kids.  You can check out more about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side_Kids.  Some fun scenes as Garfield tries to be the tougher guy but also tries to help save the farm.  Good story and good fun. 

  97.)  The Spy in Black.  This is a British film released as U-Boat 29 in the United States.  Taut spy film about Germans during the first world war trying to sink the British fleet.  Watch out for the double-cross.  Great movie! 

  98.)  Espionage Agent.  Another actor I really admire is Joel McCrea.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough for him to do in this film.  McCrea is an American diplomat working with his wife to try and smash an espionage ring.  Brenda Marshall as his wife has more to do in this film than McCrea. 

  99.)  The Housekeeper’s Daughter.  I’m not sure if this was meant as a comedy or not.  It was directed by Hal Roach who was the genius behind Our Gang, The Little Rascals, and some of the early Laurel and Hardy films.  Joan Bennett is The Housekeeper’s Daughter.  She used to be the girlfriend of an underworld gangster.  Now, she’s a good girl and working with a reporter to try and expose the people behind a murder.  Adolph Menjou is very funny as one of the reporters but sometimes the film tries to be way too serious. 

  100.) Undercover Agent.  “A railway postal clerk goes after a sweepstakes counterfeiting ring.”  Not much here folks.  Some comedy.  Some crime.  Ultimately, very dull.   

  101.)  Love Affair.  This was the first film starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer.  They meet on a ship sailing to the United States.  He’s a renowned French playboy who is engaged to a socialite in New York.  She’s also engaged to her boss.  They try to fight their attraction to each other and commit to try and improve themselves to see if they are worthy of their relationship.  They plan to meet six months later at the top of the Empire State Building if they think they’ve managed to work things out.  He’s there but something happens to prevent her from meeting up with him.  Will they ever get together?  There’s a wonderful scene with the great Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya as Boyer’s grandmother.  If you’ve never heard of her, definitely check out her other films.  Directed by Leo McCarey, he would also direct the 1957 remake, “An Affair To Remember,” starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.   Of course, Kerr and Boyer would star together in 1939’s “When Tomorrow Comes” which I reviewed earlier.  They would do a third film together in 1944, “Together Again.”  I haven’t watched that one but it’s definitely on my to-watch list. 

   Well, there you have it, 101 films from 1939.  As I said, I lost count and thought “Undercover Agent” was number 99 and “Love Affair” was number 100.  I’m still happy to have “Love Affair” in my list.  I won’t discuss the popular films like “Gone With The Wind” and “The Wizard Of Oz” but here are a few that stood out for me that are lesser known: 

2)  Disputed Passage (Dorothy Lamour in a great story)

3)  We Are Not Alone (Paul Muni in an adaptation of a James Hilton novel)

11) The Amazing Mr. Williams (Joan Blondell in a fun movie)

12) Off The Record (Joan Blondell again with Pat O’Brien)

32) East Side Of Heaven (Bing Crosby and Joan Blondell.  Nice comedy and good singing)

39) Made For Each Other (James Stewart and Carole Lombard in a melodrama)

51) In Name Only (Another melodrama with Carole Lombard as well as Cary Grant and Kay Francis)

53) At The Circus (The Marx Brothers.  Very funny film)

60) Beau Geste (Gary Cooper in a French Foreign Legion mystery adventure)

65) First Love (Deanna Durbin.  I really like her films)

73) Boy Trouble (Charlie Ruggles adopts two boys and he hates kids!)

77) The Light That Failed (Ronald Colman in another Rudyard Kipling story)

81) The Man In The Iron Mask  (A great Alexandre Dumas story.  Action adventure.)

85) Wife, Husband and Friend (Lovely Loretta Young in a funny story with George Barbier as the hilarious father-in-law)

88) S.O.S. Tidal Wave (just because it was so unbelievable and it has George Barbier as a ventriloquist)

93) When Tomorrow Comes (the second pairing in 1939 of Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne.  Not as good as Love Affair but still very good)

97) The Spy In Black (Great WW1 spy film)

101) Love Affair (Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in a great love story)

That’s it for now.  I still have a few 1939 films downloaded and will continue to watch them but I’m not going to post a part 4.  Who knows though, I might mention a few more of them in a future blahg.  Keep checking back.