It Was Bound To Happen

Jesse Walker's top ten list has finally caught up to 1939, the year of Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz.  The year generally considered Hollywood's (and filmdom's) greatest.

But does Jesse think that?  Well no, actually.  Here's what he does think, starting with the top ten:

1.  The Wizard Of Oz
2.  The Rules Of The Game
3.  Destry Rides Again
4.  Ninotchka
5.  Stagecoach
6.  Midnight
7.  Only Angels Have Wings
8.  It's A Wonderful World
9.  Daybreak
10.  Young Mr. Lincoln

I certainly love The Wizard Of Oz--great score, talented cast, MGM spending money like there's no tomorrow.  Maybe not #1, but top ten, sure.

The Rules Of The Game is a world classic.

Destry Rides Again is a fine comedy-western, top ten but maybe not #3.

Ninotchka is yet another classic, if not as great as Lubitsch's next, The Shop Around The Corner.

I disagree with Jesse on Stagecoach, which I don't think much of.  I admit I haven't seen it in a long time, but that's because early viewings put me off.

Midnight takes a little while to get going, but is a delight.

Only Angels Have Wings would probably be my favorite of the year. (This is what I mean by a film by Hawks starring Grant, as opposed to another Walker favorite, I Was A Male War Bride.)

It's A Wonderful World has two great leads, but is a decidedly second-tier screwball comedy.

Daybreak is pretty good.

I don't love Young Mr. Lincoln, but I'd say it's the best of John Ford's three "classic" films of 1939.

Here are his honorable mentions:

11.  The Story Of The Last Chrysanthemums
12.  Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
13.  You Can't Cheat An Honest Man
14.  The Spy In Black
15.  Of Mice And Men
16.  Peace On Earth
17.  Love Affair
18.  Son Of Frankenstein
19.  The Practical Pig
20.  Le Dernier Tournant

I haven't seen 11, 14 or 20 (though I'd like to).  16 and 19 are animated shorts.

12 is Capra perhaps a little overdone and self-important, but still operating at the height of his powers, so should probably be top ten (and almost is to Jesse). 13 is W. C. Field's not at his best, but pretty good.  15 is so-so.  17 is a weird mix from McCarey--it starts as romantic comedy and ends as melodrama.  It's never bad but I wish he'd stuck to comedy.  18 is better than a programmer, but not quite a James Whale Frankenstein.

Other films that would make my top ten or twenty:

A Chump At Oxford

The Roaring Twenties

The Story Of Vernon And Irene Castle (one of Astaire and Roger's weakest but still nostalgic fun)


Other films I like:

Another Thin Man, Babes In Arms, Bachelor Mother, Beau Geste, The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, At The Circus (though far from the Marx Brothers' best), The Cat And The Canary, Dodge City, Each Dawn I Die, The Flying Deuces, Gulliver's Travels, The Hound Of The Baskervilles


Other films of the year:

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, Dark Victory, Five Came Back, The Four Feathers, Golden Boy, Gone With The Wind, The Gorilla, Hollywood Cavalcade (so it was Buster Keaton who invented pie throwing), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Juarez, The Ice Follies Of 1939, Idiot's Delight (proving Clark Gable is as good a song and dance man as Peter Boyle), Intermezzo, In Name Only (the king and queen of screwball get together and decide to make a weepie), Jamaica Inn, Jesse James, Lady Of The Tropics, The Little Princess, The Oklahoma Kid, Made For Each Other, The Man In The Iron Mask, The Old Maid, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Rains Came, The Return Of Doctor X, Stanley and Livingstone, The Story Of Alexander Graham Bell, Tarzan Finds A Son!, The Three Musketeers, Tower Of  London, The Women, Wuthering Heights, Union Pacific, Zenobia (a fascinating film showing Oliver Hardy could act and also defend segregation)