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1930s
CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937)
U.S. (MGM) 115m BW
Director: Victor Fleming
Producer: Louis D. Lighton
Screenplay: Marc Connelly, John Lee Mahin, Dale Van Every, from novel by Rudyard Kipling
Photography: Harold Rosson
Music: Franz Waxman
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, Charley Grapewin, Mickey Rooney, John Carradine, Oscar OShea, Jack La Rue, Walter Kingsford, Donald Briggs, Sam McDaniel, Bill Burrud
Oscar: Spencer Tracy (actor)
Oscar nominations: Louis D. Lighton (best picture),
Marc Connelly, John Lee Mahin, Dale Van Every (screenplay), Elmo Veron (editing)
Rudyard Kipling, who died in 1936, did not live long enough to see three of his books adapted for the screen the following year, including Victor Flemings rousing childhood epic Captains Courageous. Freddie Bartholomew stars as Harvey Cheyne, a spoiled rich kid who, after drinking six ice cream sodas, falls off the ocean liner on which he and his father (Melvyn Douglas) are traveling. He has the good fortune to be picked up by a fishing boat out of Gloucester, whose crew, including the good-natured Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy), is unimpressed by his wealth and position. Humiliated, Harvey is left to his own resources, but under Manuels careful tutelage he learns the value of hard work and real accomplishment. Before they can return to port, however, Manuel dies in an accident. In port, Harvey is met by his father yet wants to stay with the fishermen, but after a moving memorial for his dead friend, father and son are reconciled.
Child star Bartholomew is excellent in a role that requires him to be both obnoxious and irresistible. And Spencer Tracy, his hair curled and face brown with makeup, does an excellent imitation of a Portuguese sailor. With humor, pathos, and an interesting moral, this is one of the best childrens movies Hollywood ever produced. RBP
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1930s
YE BAN GE SHENG (1937)
MIDNIGHT SONG
China (Xinhua) 123m BW
Language: Mandarin
Director: Ma-Xu Weibang
Producer: Shankun Zhang
Screenplay: Weibang Ma-Xu
Photography: Boqing Xue, Xingsan Yu
Music: Xinghai Xian (song)
Cast: Menghe Gu, Ping Hu, Shan Jin, Chao Shi
Gaston Lerouxs 1919 novel The Phantom of the Opera has inspired a score of films. Ma-Xu Weibangs Midnight Song, made in Shanghai in 1936, is unarguably one of the most inspired. Ma-Xu (19051961) entered filmmaking as a title designer, graduating in turn to production design, acting, and direction. By the end of the silent period he had six films. Midnight Song was his second sound picture.
Midnight Song establishes its dark and eerie mood from the start, with the arrival of a touring opera company at a dilapidated theater, which they learn has been empty and crumbling since the apparent death there of the great opera star Song Danping, ten years before. The companys young star is rehearsing alone in the theater when he hears a beautiful voice, which coaches him through his song. It is, of course, the fugitive Song Danping, now dreadfully disfigured, who reveals himself and relates his tragic story, shown in flashback. His physical state was inflicted on him on the orders of an evil feudal lord, angry at Songs love for his daughter. Since then he has hidden in the theater, awaiting a singer who can assume his mantle and perform his great operatic creation. The young singer is chosen for this role, and also made envoy to Songs lost love, Li Xiaoxia, whose mind has broken from sorrow.
The revolutionary difference from Western versions of Leroux is that the Phantom, instead of being a lurking menace, becomes a sympathetic and benevolent protagonist. In all other adaptations, the Phantoms protégée is a female singer, and the Phantom is motivated by sexual jealousy of her fiancé. Changing the sex to a protégé, Ma-Xu develops more complex and ambiguous relationships. Song sees the young man as a surrogate for himself in the affections of Li Xiaoxia, and suffers jealousy on her behalf when he discovers the young man has himself a girlfriend.
All this is staged in richly atmospheric settings, with a masterly use of light and shadow clearly inspired by German Expressionist cinema. An important element in the films immense popularity were the songs, which have remained popular standards in China. In 1941, Ma-Xu was obliged to make a sequel, Midnight Song II, and the film has also inspired two Hong Kong remakes, Mid-Nightmare (1962) and The Phantom Lover (1995). DR
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1930s
LA GRANDE ILLUSION (1937)
GRAND ILLUSION
France (R.A.C.) 114m BW
Language: French / German / English
Director: Jean Renoir
Producer: Albert Pinkovitch, Frank Rollmer
Screenplay: Jean Renoir, Charles Spaak
Photography: Christian Matras
Music: Joseph Kosma
Cast: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Julien Carette, Georges Péclet, Werner Florian, Jean Dasté, Sylvain Itkine, Gaston Modot, Marcel Dalio