Part of a series by David Cairns on forgotten pre-Code films.
Trawling through Hollywood musicals before Gold Diggers of 1933 is a fascinating job. Asides from Lubitsch and the operetta-film, the most salient feature of films like Sunnyside Up (1929) and Follow Thru (1930) is the slenderness of their plots, which are willowy and attenuated in the extreme. Of course one expects musicals to have rather lightweight, simplistic storylines, but these movies extend rudimentary narrative conceits farther than one would think possible, coasting on pure charm.
In today's cinematic world, the art of the musical looks hopelessly difficult: how do you maintain enough story tension to keep the audience hooked, while suspending plot for minutes at a time to indulge in musical numbers which tend to capture the mood of a moment, extending it well past any narrative requirement? In the 30s, they not only did it regularly and effortlessly, they didn't...
Trawling through Hollywood musicals before Gold Diggers of 1933 is a fascinating job. Asides from Lubitsch and the operetta-film, the most salient feature of films like Sunnyside Up (1929) and Follow Thru (1930) is the slenderness of their plots, which are willowy and attenuated in the extreme. Of course one expects musicals to have rather lightweight, simplistic storylines, but these movies extend rudimentary narrative conceits farther than one would think possible, coasting on pure charm.
In today's cinematic world, the art of the musical looks hopelessly difficult: how do you maintain enough story tension to keep the audience hooked, while suspending plot for minutes at a time to indulge in musical numbers which tend to capture the mood of a moment, extending it well past any narrative requirement? In the 30s, they not only did it regularly and effortlessly, they didn't...
- 12/22/2011
- MUBI
On a normal day, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel makes one feel transported to old Hollywood. But this weekend, at TCM.s first Classic Film Festival, literally running into the likes of Tony Curtis, Elli Wallach, Eva Marie Saint in the lobby of the hotel was a real possibility. There were stars from the 30.s, like two time Academy Award winner Louise Rainer, to stars of today that included Alec Baldwin and Anjelica and Danny Huston. What was amazing about the festival was not just seeing long lines for even the most obscure films (Sunnyside Up anyone?) and the traditional classics (Singin. in the Rain, Casablanca) but to see so many young fans in their early 20.s in the audiences.
- 4/27/2010
- by Tracey Brown
- Monsters and Critics
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