Catching Up

I've been way behind on posting here, and I think I need to just get some stuff down before it's completely out of my memory. Each of these films deserves a full post, but given my current budget of free time, they're not gonna get them.

Singin' In The Rain (1952): A+

This movie is wonderful; intensely colorful, with great music, great sets, and extraordinary performances by Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. I've got a full review on hold, so I'll put the rest of my thoughts there and post it.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): A-

Stanley Kowalski is a hunk. Too bad he's an asshole. This is a movie to watch with the windows open and a cold beer on a hot, humid, summer day. I'd completely forgotten about Karl Malden's love-hate-able role as Blanche Dubois' would-be fiancé, which should be a crime. Also, Tennesse Williams really was great at writing one-apartment plays, wasn't he? There's a reason this film is considered required watching in the civilized world.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): C

I don't understand this movie at all; it's basically a propaganda film for America and the Boy Scouts. If you want to learn how congress works, watch I'm Just A Bill. If you want to see a Jimmy Stewart movie, watch Rear Window or Philadelphia Story. I'm seriously baffled why this movie shows up on lists of great movies. It's a kids' movie about politics. Really.

It Happened One Night (1934): B+

This is the first (and so far only) movie I've seen with Clark Gable in it, and I genuinely look forward to seeing more. I have some questions about this movie, though. Namely, I wonder why Gable's character has two pairs of pajamas packed in his single hard-shell suitcase. Is it purely for plot reasons, so he can loan a pair to Claudette Colbert, or is that just how people rolled in the thirties? Also, after Philadelphia Story, this is the second movie I've seen where a lower-class character lectures a higher-class character on the proper way to dunk a doughnut. I don't know... I don't pack one pair of pajamas, let alone two, when I travel, and I don't give a solitary fuck about dunking doughnuts. Maybe that's just me.

City Lights (1931): B

I am always going to get this movie confused with Modern Times. I just have to remember that Modern Times is the good one, and this is the not-so-good one. But I do like Charlie Chaplin movies, it turns out, so even the bad ones are worth watching.

The General (1926): B- 

I don't understand this movie. Apparently it's a comedy? With hardly any jokes? The only scenes worth watching are the one where Buster Keaton repeatedly tries to enlist in the confederate army, and the one where a bridge collapses and dumps a train into a river.

The Gold Rush (1925): B-

It took us three days to finish this movie, and I'm not sure why other than the fact that it's just not really a gripping story. But there are some classic, really funny, scenes in this movie: the shack gets blown around, so that the door opens up out into a crevasse; and one of the prospectors gets so hungry that Charlie Chaplin starts looking like a roasted chicken. Sadly, as usual Charlie Chaplin falls in love with a girl that doesn't deserve him, but they end up together in the end so I guess it's a happy ending? Also, some of the opening footage is fascinating to watch; it plays like documentary footage of the Alaskan gold rush, even if it was staged for production of this film.