Only A Matter Of Time

Jesse Walker was gonna have to deal with 1939--Hollywood "greatest" year--eventually, and the time has come. His top ten is up.

Sure, it was the year of Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz, but 1939 isn't that much better (or any better) than a lot of years from that era. The way I see it, most of my favorite actors or directors then seemed to have done better work just a few years before or after. Jesse seems to agree.

I also agree with him that GWTW has its moments but is too long and not the classic so many claim it is. (What it was was by far the biggest hit of the era--maybe ever). Jesse also doesn't think that much of other 1939 "classics" such as Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Dark Victory, and also claims Gunga Din, Love Affair and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are overpraised. I can't say I disagree. Chips and DV aren't great, though they have their moments. Gunga Din is pretty good, but has its clunky patches and some serious flaws (not to mention, like GWTW, racial problems). Love Affair has a solid first half but bogs down. Mr. Smith might make my top ten list, but I wouldn't say it's Capra's best. Or second best. Or third. But it's up there.

So what did make the lst?

1. The Wizard of Oz

I can't complain. Maybe not number 1, but it should be on the list. It certainly has an amazing score, cool sets, Judy Garland, a scary witch and some highly entertaining supporting vaudeville turns. Though the ending, where it's all a dream, is silly (if unavoidable); and really, do you buy for a second Glinda's claim that Dorothy could have gone home right from the start but Dorothy wouldn't have believed her?

(By the way, the movie cost so much I don't think it earned its money back for years. Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland films, like the Andy Hardy series or musicals like Babes In Arms cost a quarter as much as grossed the same, maybe more. The Harvard Lampoon named The Wizard Of Oz the most colossal flop of the year.)

2. The Rules of the Game

Certainly this should be up there, too. Overpraised a bit, but only because I don't think it's one of the ten greatest film of all (or even Renoir's greatest).

3. Destry Rides Again

This film is as unlikely as Wizard Of Oz--a lot of odd people came together to make a Western that's a fine comedy and a comedy that's a fine Western.

4. Ninotchka

It's films like this that convince me that 1939 doesn't stand out. Here's Lubitsch making a classic (if a bit long) but it's not nearly as good as The Shop Around The Corner or To Be Or Not To Be.

5. Stagecoach

Stagecoach might be exhibit A of overpraised films from 1939. I find it overwritten and overdone. A few decent performances. (Including Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell had arguably the greatest year ever, doing good work here (winning an Oscar), plus in GWTW, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Only Angels Have Wings and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.)

6. Midnight

One of the best comedies of the year. If it's not one of the greatest of the era, it's because the first and third act don't quite match the delightful middle. (I have no idea if it has anything to do with Mitchell Leisen's meddling, though it was Leisen more than anyone who made both Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges insist on directing their own scripts.)

7. Only Angels Have Wings

This might be my number 1 pick. It's only very slight flaw is that Jean Arthur, perhaps out of sorts when not working in Capraland, isn't the best example of a "Hawksian" woman.

8. It's a Wonderful World

A minor but enjoyable comedy, though I'd expect more from Jimmy Stewart and Claudette Colbert in 1939. (By 1939 many felt the run of screwball was ending. Look at In Name Only, where we finally get Cary Grant and Carole Lombard together at the height of their powers and they make a melodrama!)

As Jesse notes, many aren't aware of the title. I suppose half the time it's scheduled on TV people expect they're about to see It's A Wonderful Life.

9. Daybreak

No Renoir, but still good.

10. Young Mr. Lincoln

Another overpraised film from John Ford, though I like it better than Stagecoach. Guess I should be grateful Jesse didn't include Drums Along The Mohawk as well.

Some honorable mentions: You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (hardly Fields' best, but not bad) and Son of Frankenstein (Frankenstein was getting a bit tired at this point).

Jesse would like to see Wuthering Heights. That's another title I'd put on the overpraised list.

I'm a little surprised he hasn't included any Warner Brothers or Disney cartoons, since he often picks shorts.

As an avid watcher of TCM, I must have seen a hundred Hollywood films from this era, and most are forgettable, but there are still a high number that are enjoyable (as it true of any year around then).

Here are some films from 1939 that run the gamut from highly entertaining to at least having some facet that makes them worth checking out:

Another Thin Man. Babes in Arms, Bachelor Mother, Beau Geste, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, At the Circus, Each Dawn I Die, The Four Feathers, Hollywood Cavalcade, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Juarez, Idiot's Delight, Intermezzo, Jamaica Inn, The Flying Deuces, Jesse James , The Oklahoma Kid, Of Mice and Men, The Old Maid, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Roaring Twenties, Stanley and Livingstone, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, The Three Musketeers, The Women and Union Pacific.