You can watch some of the “worst” of 1939 for free: The Rains Came th-cam.com/video/bkdQ95XEiY8/w-d-xo.html Hotel for Women: th-cam.com/video/xN1KUuyWstA/w-d-xo.html Ice Follies of 1939 archive.org/details/7-h-3-1-c-3-60-ll-13-06-1939-1939 If you're loving these videos consider supporting the channel at: ☕www.buymeacoffee.com/cinemacities ⭐ patreon.com/CinemaCities Members get lots of great extras! Further Reading www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-worst-movies-1939-angel-was/15495612/ Harvard Lampoon Worst of 1939 www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-worst-films-1939/153157240/ The Rains Came Review www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-1939-the-rains-came/155296417/ New York Times Ice Follies 1939 Review www.nytimes.com/1939/03/17/archives/the-screen-love-affair-a-bittersweet-romance-opens-at-the-music.html Angels Wash Their Faces New York Times Review www.nytimes.com/1939/09/04/archives/the-screen-angels-wash-their-faces-a-first-national-picture-is.html Hotel for Women: 10 Worst Films of 1939 www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-item-worst-film-hotel-for-wome/154955789/
My mother was an original Ice Follies cast member, from 1936 to 1947. She used to speak about making Ice Follies of 1939 at MGM at the same time as they were shooting The Wizard Of Oz. She's one of the skaters in the movie, but I'd probably need to see a pristine print on a big screen to pick her out among the other skaters in the line.
Lou Ayres was one of Hollywood's greatest underrated performers. Underbilled as an actor, he directed too. When the War came, his status as a conscientious objector gave him a black eye, even though he served as a combat medic with distinction. His career was never the same but he kept working, discovered television, and was nominated for an Emmy. He deserved a better deal, and in a time when there were lots of "cheap" Hollywood stars, he was the real deal.
@benmulvey2704 Correction 'The Ice Follies of 1939' was the movie 'Faye 'Dunaway thinly disguised as Joan Crawford' was preparing for in the opening scenes of 'Mommie Dearest'.
When I saw the title, I immediately clicked. This kind of video is made for me! As it turns out, it was full of weird personal connections. I came across IDIOT'S DELIGHT decades ago when I was writing my dissertation (which became my first book, DICTATORS, DEMOCRACY, AND AMERICAN PUBLIC CULTURE) on U.S. reactions to the European dictatorships...though the film eventually ended up on my dissertation's cutting-room floor. Harry Rapf, criticized producer of ICE FOLLIES OF 1939, was the grandfather of my former University of Oklahoma colleague Joanna Rapf, who helped found OU's Film and Media Studies Department. And Louis Bromfield, whose novel was the source material for WHEN THE RAINS CAME, was the most famous resident of my wife's hometown, Mansfield, Ohio (it was on his estate just outside Mansfield, Malabar Farm, that Bogart and Bacall were married).
Linda Darnell came a long way by the time she was in A Letter to Three Wives. She matched her co-star Ann Sothern with her wise cracks and gold digging dame persona and was wonderful in that role.
Holiday is my Favorite Movie Ever. And Ayres gives a beautiful performance as what night be the most complicated character, who starts out seeming like comedy relief until you realize he's intentionally drinking himself to death.
Growing up in the early 1980s, local (NYC) Channel 5 would show all the "Dead End Kids" movies on Sunday mornings till the afternoons, intermittently with Abbott & Costello and Tarzan films. Those movies were zany! My family often went to church on the Sundays, so I would try to catch the FIRST half hour of one Dead End Kids film, and by the time we returned from Mass I would catch the LAST hour of another Dead End Kids flick. To this day, I've never seen an entire flick, but I've seen them all!! LOL
Channel 5 - METROMEDIA I belive! Channel 9 - WOR TV Channel 11 - WPIX LOL...yep, native New Yorker here too. I used to watch the 4:30 movie. MOST of the older movies from the 30s and 40s were 90 minutes which fit in perfectly with the hour and half time slot given. But sometimes newer movies were shown and the butcher the film with editing to make it fit. I was always confused with the plot in those instances. Also, invariably my mother would serve dinner at 10 minutes to 6 and call me to the table and I'd be like "MOM, I only have 10 minutes left in the film" Which didn't fly with my mother so I missed the last 10 minutes of so many movies!
The Bowery Boys comedies with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were very entertaining, partly because they were just "loose" - they counted on their actors knowing how to be funny.
@ChrisWilson-d8k On Saturday's however Channel 5 had the Drive In Movie showing 2 or 3 Kung Fu films from 1pm to 6pm! Than it be a 70s crime/detective film (Charles Bronson takes on the mob, or something!). That's when my dad would take over the TV! Ha ha
Lew Ayres is SO wonderful. Love him in everything! Always a quiet but memorable presence. I love every minute of "The Rains Came," watched it 100 times. (And yes, I read the book. Once.) Tyrone is INCREDIBLY handsome in it, probably the handsomest of all his movies. And -- incredible special effects, Myrna, Ouspenskaya, ELEPHANTS! Angel Clarence and Jane Darwell. And one of Norma Desmond's waxworks as the Maharaja. Oh, come on, what's not to love? Even George Brent is entertaining there. A weak script? Who cares, with all that juicy stuff? "Idiot's Delight" is also eminently watchable. I'm not a big fan of Clark Gable, but his song and dance act is unforgettable. Yes, Norma Shearer overacts, but she SHOULD overact in that part, so she did alright. And she is stunning. And sings well in Russian.
Truth is, all major studio productions of the era have a certain standard of quality. The direction, writing, cinematography, costumes, music, set design etc. were all highly professional, if nothing special. The studios also had a vast supply of competent character actors (like Ann Southern) who could lighten up even a mediocre film. Finally, until one became a really big star, the major players - Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford etc. - had no real control over their projects. They did what they were assigned to do, did it competently, and didn't complain (publicly). That's why actors of that era needed to know how to do everything with credibility - ride a horse, sing and dance, wear a fedora - 'cause you never knew what the studio was going to stick you with.
Anyone who could claim that "The Rains Came" is a bad movie needs to have their eyes checked. A rare time Myrna Loy received top billing ( and deserved it since she carried the movie). I love the fact that an actress known for playing "the Perfect Wife" portrayed a wife that was anything but perfect. Second, George Brent. Two of his best performances in 1939. Dark Victory and this movie. As Lady Edwina's former lover, George Brent was just ideal in the role. The chemistry with Myrna Loy was so good( they did costar in an earlier movie). Was Tyrone Power miscast? Is the Pope Catholic?. But so what. The special effects were magnificent ( and Academy Award Winning). And of course, a tragic ending. Since Myrna Loy played an adulteress and this was 1939, naturally she has to die at some point. And it was a great death scene. I think im overdue for watching this "bad movie" again.
I couldn't have said it better. Oh, wait, I tried (see above). But good job @jamesryan6008. The Rains Came is that rarity of the 1930s - the smart, observant movie (and they had all but disappeared in the 1940s). This channel has lost a lot of cred with this wrong-headed claim. Maybe @CinemaCities1978 is confusing it with 1955's "The Rains of Ranchipur." Now, THAT was a bad movie.
James Stewart was in another turkey that year: "Made for Each Other," in which a couple who live in a fancy apartment and can afford to hire a servant whine about how poor they are. Also from 1939 was "The Return of Doctor X," a vampire movie with Humphrey Bogart in one of his strangest roles. "Code of the Secret Service," one of Ronald Reagan's Brass Bancroft movies, came out that year; Reagan claimed it was the only one of his movies that he never saw, and he always resisted attempts by others to trick him into seeing it.
In truth, Crawford may very well be Hollywood's greatest historical mystery. She was in mostly bad movies, three of her best performances were in films she did not carry (Grand Hotel, The Women, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), and her most famous role (Mildred Pierce) although it won her a hard to explain Oscar, is a popular but minor melodrama which is only a little better than most on her resume. That she lasted as long as she did (over forty years?!) is unfathomable, considering how much she increasingly resembled an old, bad drag queen. Michael Redgrave described her acting style best: "How splendid that she can still out-stare us all." In fairness, she was very good in two star vehicles (Strange Cargo, Humoresque).
Well, this is where she complained to Louis B. Mayer about why her box office value had diminished. It was not her, it was the bad movies they cast her in as if to ruin her career after all she had done for MGM years before.
As for me, I was so confused by the excellent script, sensitive direction and tremendous supporting cast I didn't realize it either. Oh, wait. @CinemaCities1978 is just wrong. There ya go.
The Rains Came has a beautiful score. Sometimes I will play certain scenes just to listen to that score. But I'm under no illusion that it's a great film, though "worst of the year" might be a tad exaggerated. That wig of Norma Shearer's in Idiot's Delight is a crime against nature.
The wig Norma wore in that movie was the second ugliest in movie history. That thing on Barbara Stanwyck's head in "Double Indemnity" takes top( or bottom) spot.
I saw the Ice Follies one on Turner Classics, and I've never laughed so much at something that wasn't a comedy. Those bizarre skating routines at the end were sublimely awful.
Great idea! Years ago I did a 61 day blog on Tumblr where I only consumed media from 1939. I watched 72 films, and I'd add three more to the list: Boys' Reformatory (an awful C film), The New Frontier (a B Western with John Wayne and Phylis Isley/Jennifer Jones, before Selznick changed her name & made her a star), and The Return of Doctor X (a deliciously bad Sci-Fi with Bogart, who thought it was so embarrassing he wouldn't admit to ever being in it!). BTW, I am a weirdo who actually loved Norma Shearer's performance in Idiot's Delight- for the shear campiness of it! 😄Her fake Russian character was so over the top it worked for me. "Omaha? Oh-MA-ha? Where is that? Persia?" 🤣
With Thanksgiving just around the corner in Canada and next month in the U.S., what a great time to feature some turkeys! Although, any picture with Ann Sheridan is immediately elevated for me.💘 Oh, and Linda Darnell! (swoon).
The Rains Came was actually remade, in 1955, as The Rains of Ranchipur, with Lana Turner, Richard Burton, and Fred MacMurray, of all people, in the George Brent role. If you think the original version was bad, check out the remake - it's a hoot!
When The Rains Came was being described, I kept thinking I'd seen this movie on TV as a kid, but it wasn't in black and white. So it was the Rains of Ranchipur I saw. I remember the flood and someone reporting that the Untouchables quarter had been washed away. Which confused the hell out of me because I was unaware of the caste system.
Extremely well done. Great choices for 'bad' films. The clips were superlative. The narration was authoritative yet amusing, offering fascinating facts and insights. Thanks for an enjoyable 22 minutes.
lew ayres was the love of ginger roger's life. a very under rated actor. I read her (miss rogers) autobiography and she never really explained why they divorced, though I would never have wanted lela rogers as a mother- in- law. she was very formidable lady, to put it politely.
I read Rogers autobiography also. I got the impression she always wanted her boyfriends / husbands to become teetotalers & was disappointed when they continued drinking alcohol
@@sgabig totally agree. she never served alcohol and avoided it, although she could play drunk perfectly. all 5 of her husbands drank though, 2 of them to death. I believe Ginger realised Lew, over decades, was never a drunk, just a man. simply. maybe he wanted children and she didn't or couldn't have them. whatever happened, both of them are icons and remembered.
Thank you for this, I loved it and am looking forward to viewing most of them 😊 I nearly fell over when Angels wash their faces came up. I watched that film at least once a week growing up in the 80s. I absolutely love it 😀 I think my video recorded from the TV must have worn out eventually! Thanks again 💝
Me too! Local (NYC) Channel 5 would play a Dead End Kids flick every Sunday morning/afternoon intermittently with Abbott and Costello or Tarzan in the early 1980s!
Hey, CC! Bang-up job once again, and I thought this was such a great video concept. I would love to see you do this for another year when you get the chance. Wait, is Ice Follies of 1939 the film that Joan is preparing for in the opening scene of Mommie Dearest? I just realized I never knew what film that was until now. Norma Shearer getting whacked multiple times in this video was not on my bingo card at all. The questionable "this has been one" after using that clip again at the end? I nearly spit my drink out. 😭😭😭
@@DMovieman I fully had no idea this film existed. I mean, it should set a land speed record for repeated air time on TCM for the sheer fact that this trio is in it.
My two cents: Joan Crawford never looked like a young ingenue-wife type. She has this severe face that always makes her look like she should play Cinderella's stepmother, and never Cinderella.
What a great video! I am definitely going to check out these titles! And can I just say …. How funny (and apt) was it to coin the term D.E.C.U. at 8:30? Genius! 🙏👍🏻❤️
No one gets Norma Shearer in Idiots Delight - her performance is criticised for its artificiality, but that is exactly the point. She’s playing an American girl pretending to be a Russian countess so it’s is supposed to be artificial. She confirmed to her biographer, Gavin Lambert, that she was parodying Garbo in the role.
I can definitely see it - but there is a fine line between a character acting artificially and coming across as insufferable, and unfortunately Shearer crossed it. I'd say the director was probably partly to blame, this was clearly the performance he wanted. Shearer is usually better than this.
An interesting change of pace for Cinema Cities. Here’s proof that as much as Hollywood has changed there’s some things that stay the same - bad writing makes for bad movies. Good performances, effects or directing rarely fixes bad writing, leaning on stars, franchises and spectacle also rarely saves a film.
The major studios' productions were all had a certain "standard of competence," even those that aren't that good. The acting, photography and direction were always professional, even if the casting might have been off. Truth was, MGM spent much of the 30s making solid, if dull, biopix and "prestige pictures," while Warners was making all the fun action movies. After 1939, MGM hit its stride with the Arthur Freed musical unit.
Linda Darnell is one of the youngest actresses to play an adult role I have seen. The are plenty of Hollywood films going back to the 1910s in which you see teenage girls play young women. Linda Darnell was 15 when she made this film. She also did “DayTime Wife” opposite Tyrone Power the same year. Back in 1935 British actress Valerie Hobson, then 17, played the young wife of the “Werewolf of London”. I think Hollywood producers had this penchant for casting jailbait in adult roles. In 1942, Billy Wilder’s comedy, “The Major and The Minor” had Ginger Rogers turn this thing on its head by playing an adult woman masquerading as a 12-year-old girl in order to use a children’s fare train ticket.
I Believe Ann Miller and Ida Lupino were also playing mature roles while underage. Lupino was brought to Hollywood the story goes to play Alice in Wonderland, but when the studio heads saw her in person they knew that wouldn't work.
Good point about Lew Ayres, one the most underrated of all Hollywood actors. His tragicomic portrayal of the boozy, frustrated son of an overbearing tycoon father in "Holiday" (1938 with Grant & Hepburn) is brilliant. Edward Everett Horton is also very good in that.
Norma Shearer was a wonderful actress. She started in silent films. She’s not to everyone’s enjoyment but I always appreciate the hard work she put into her acting. Since I’ve seen more movies than you have, narrator, I think I appreciate more ranges of acting methods than you do and Norma Shearer is one of the best actresses of American films. She took an ordinary role of Mrs. Stephen Haynes in the women and she turned it into a three dimensional character. She could’ve easily been washed out by the great Rosalind Russell and Marjorie Main and Paulette Goddard. But Norma Shearer shines in the movie the women. I don’t understand the movie Idiots Delight but Clark Gable was handsome and Norma Shearer was Norma Shearer.
Really the only reason one anyone remembers "Idiot's Delight" is to see Gable's "Puttin' in the Ritz" song and dance routine LOL The fact that it was released with two completely different alternate endings (I recall TCM playing both endings consecutively when they broadcast the film) shows that no one quite knew what to do with the property. While I don't hate The Dead End Kids, I have to admit that I do find Leo Gorcey incredibly irritating so I do understand some of the hate...
I had this video randomly recommended by TH-cam, and I’m glad I found your channel, since I love classic films. Subscribed! I have not seen all the movies cited in this video. In fact, I have seen only The Rains Came and Idiot’s Delight. I think The Rains Came is fine, if we judge it on its own merits and in the context of its time. I think the main weaknesses are the script and the direction. We all know that Tyrone Power was a competent actor, and it’s not his fault that the studio cast him as an Indian doctor. In 1939, it was typical for actors to be cast in roles of just about any background. By the standards of 1939, The Rains Came is quite progressive; Power’s character is not a caricature, but is portrayed as intelligent, dignified, moral, and heroic. The rest of the characters, including Myrna Loy’s (disappointingly), are underwritten and presented as standard melodrama stereotypes. Boooring! Disaster movies were a quite new genre, and while Clarence Brown was an experienced director, he was more comfortable with juicy dramatic/romantic material a la Garbo than big action sequences, so I think the pacing and emotional impact of The Rains Came are uneven. Luckily, the rains/flooding scenes delivered for dramatic climax and set a standard for those kinds of visual sequences. My verdict: Not my favorite movie, but it doesn’t deserve to be on the list of the worst movies of 1939! I had forgotten that Clarence Brown ALSO directed Idiot’s Delight (thanks, IMDB), and I personally think that movie IS a stinker! I always wondered if it was butchered in the editing room or something, in addition to the script being completely bastardized from the play. None of the characters have emotional depth. The whole movie is so “cringe”, and I really consider Clark Gable to be utterly miscast (a singing/dancing entertainer traveling with a troupe of attractive chorus girls? REALLY?). Norma Shearer’s over-acting and artifice may be bad acting or they MAY be a result of how the character was written? Irene is SUPPOSED to be fake. But who cares? Everybody in the movie seems to be going through the motions of the plot, but nobody even remotely resembles a real person. My verdict: This movie deserves every razzing it gets, even more so because of the abundant lost potential. What if MGM had actually made a bitingly satirical, witty movie about the follies of humanity in a region on the brink of major war even as it was still reeling from its last major war? What if the casting and acting had produced characters that audiences could understand, perhaps even empathize with? What if Norma Shearer had just said NO to that wig?!
The storm scenes left me wishing I could have seen it on a big screen! The rest of the movie is a real curiosity. I'm real curious about how it got so bad.
Who would have thought rolling your "r's" would ever attempt to become a thing on its own merit. Thanks for another of your insightful and well constructed presentations that enhances my otherwise limited knowledge of film.
@@sgabig Well, it was politics since she was married to Irving Thalberg and most likely had stock in the studio. So she was the "Queen" of the studio, regardless of her talents.
@@Garsons-oq4lh I admitted as such in my original post - that my dislike was entirely irrational. I concede she very well could have been a lovely person in real like.
Very impressed by your work! Some streamer should snap you for a permanent gig. Your stories are highly watchable for film buffs who all know for every famous film there are dozens more with the same actors and great backstories. Congrats.
The average American went to the movies three times a week in those days, so there was a demand for lots of product. Probably half of those movies were solid, if not spectacular, B-Westerns, all but lost or forgotten. After all, William Boyd alone made something like 65 Hopalong Cassidy movies in the 30s - 40s.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful foray into the 'justly forgotten'. I will give 'Idiot's Delight' a try. I have a soft spot for Linda Darnell, she of the velvety voice and the aggressively brunette looks in a sea of blondes. Her acting improved massively, I suppose. She dominates 'A Letter to Three Wives' with her great performance, having stolen 'My Darling Clementine' from Henry Fonda (let alone the lesser actor that was Victor Mature) a couple of years earlier, despite the silly sombrero and the even sillier name she was given. As for goddess Myrna...I could watch anything with her in it.
I recently rewatched all the That's Entertainment films. My big gripe with those films is not always sharing which films the song and dance numbers come from. Thanks for enlightening me on this one! 18:20
1939 is the greatest year in film - this is so cleaver and humorous. A great idea - and it was an amazing year of horror for many. I've seen some of the worst o your list, they are as good as most of the movies out today with 1% of the budget. The acting and dance is far superior, the writing is orders of magnitude better. My father joined the army in 1939, he got signed up to Republic Studios after the war. He was a dancer / performer in vaudeville as a teenager with his brother. I grew up in Hollywood yet you know movies better than I. I'm so impressed with your channel - pretty sure Alice Fay and Betty Davis are fans as well -
Excellent. I have to check out Ice Follies. And Dead End Cinematic Universe is very clever. Thank you. I'm sure it's time-consuming but more of these "worst" compilations would be great.
I disagree about saying 1939s They made me a criminal is among the worst of that year. Garfield is in good form in one of his earliest roles. True, it is somewhere far fetched, but it is a feel good movie that is still entertaining.
I was preparing for a fight over this one but found all your assessments balanced and eminently fair and accurate. I like Idiot's Delight but agree it does not achieve its potential greatness. The Rains Came is beautiful looking, as you say, but doesn't quite capture the vigor of Fox's previous disaster hit, In Old Chicago.
Ice Follies kinda reminds me of The Greatest Show on Earth in that it's basically just a showcase of a very specific spectacle interspersed with actors trying their absolute HARDEST to make the insane dialogue work, and for that, it has an almost scrappy, endearing quality to it. Plus Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford, and Lew Ayres is a massively stacked cast, enough so that I rewatch sometimes to daydream about a better film with them in it.
Yeah, dunno what you're talking about re The Rains Came - I mean, it's a near-great film, certainly far better and more adult than the admittedly fun, but soapy/idiotic Dark Victory. Okay, it's not perfect, it has its flaws. But it's a helluva lot better than, for example, In Old Chicago - or even San Francisco. It has sublety, flair, subtext, style, intelligence. George Brent is generally underrated, by the way, and although his casting is typical of the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s - picture Ronald Colman here, or anyone actually British - but Brent gets it just fine. Brenda Joyce has some uneven moments, and Myrna Loy is about as British as Harpo Marx, but is otherwise effective. But Maria Ouspenskaya? Mary Nash?? Nigel Bruce??? H. B. Warner???? Jane Darwell?????? Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Travers, Joseph Schildkraut??????? All doing yeoman work in a fine screenplay. Sorry. You just don't see it, do you? Think of it as a precursor to The Jewel in the Crown. Yeah, dunno what you're talking about here.
When I was taking care of my mom, we watched hundreds of old movies. The rule was,"if it has a bunch of stars and we've never heard of it, it's going to be a stinker!"
This was hysterical Great watch There were some real superstar's in these duds or perhaps they should be described as inconsistent. I'd happily watch more of these types of videos. Great comments too
Correction: In "The Ice Follies of 1938" Joan Crawford's character did not leave Stewarts character for Hollywood fame...she found out he used wire hangers after marrying him...
I think this is the movie that is in the opening scene of Mommy Dearest (the ice skating one) It seems like they have Dunaway in an ice skating costume. I'd never heard of this movie (TCM, how'd you miss this one?) and so never could understand why she was in that outfit.
I liked Ms Shearer in Idiot's Delight. She was playing a phony Countess so why shouldn't she overact? I found her performance quite witty. Yes, she could be actressy in her roles, often with too many hand gestures. But she was just as often surprising, as in the final scenes from Marie Antoinette. And she was very funny in Private Lives with Robert Montgomery. Of course she was ludicrously miscast as Juliet but her line readings were impressive.
I don't think "The Rains Came" should be on this list. The three leads (Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy & George Brent) and most of the supporting cast give competent performances while Maria Ouspenskaya is excellent as the Maharani. Clarence Brown's direction of this movie is more than adequate. We should be careful when applying 21st Century standards to a motion picture made 85 years ago such as casting of White actors for a story set in India or the dodging of issues dealing with Colonialism. Certainly, the world has changed since when this film was made, but its story is essentially that of a woman's redemption amid a natural disaster. I feel in any year aside from 1939 the movie would have had a more positive reputation and it is a much better film than the 1955 remake "The Rains of Ranchipur."
Having only seen The Rains Came, and Idiot’s Delight, I can’t speak for the others. I saw TRC because of Tyrone Power, and ID because of the subject matter. You were right on about both films, but they were given the “A” treatment and should’ve been much better. In both films I could find something in them to enjoy and focus on, and, superficially, are worthy for a viewing. I own both films, so there it is. BTW, the remake of TRC, The Rains of Ranchipur, is just as good (or bad) as its predecessor. As much as I love classic films, so many of them are afraid to tackle important subject matters, but they at times will make up for it with great stars and good production values. Hooray for Hollywood!
I am with you 100% on your opinions of Tyrone power ,- hubba hubba indeed! - and Norma Shearer. She acted as if she were on the stage; just a little too big for screen. I'm not a fan of her Mid-Atlantic accent, honestly. She ain't Katherine Hepburn.
But, Oh so much more entertaining than just about any film one could watch today! And what Stars! Maria Ouspenskaya is not to be missed in any film in which she was involved. And that includes "The Rains Came".
Shearer’s “Russian” act must have had some connection with Garbo’s Ninotchka. Parody? Cheap knock-off? Now I’ll have to shorten my life by 90 minutes to see it.
According to the Ultimate Movie Rankings website, the worst movie of 1939 was "The Return of Doctor X", featuring Humphrey Bogart (!) as the title character. Also in the Bottom 10: "Calling Dr Kildaire", "Over The Moon", "Code of the Secret Service", "Women in The Wind", "Broadway Serenade", "Million Dollar Legs", "King of the Turf", "Winter Carnival" and "Bridal Suite".
The Golden Age of Hollywood always shined with its bonkers films! Please do one on guilty pleasure B-movies. Check out Carolina Blues starring Ann Miller, Kay Kyser and his band are basically like The Muppets. It’s a zany movie!
You can watch some of the “worst” of 1939 for free:
The Rains Came th-cam.com/video/bkdQ95XEiY8/w-d-xo.html
Hotel for Women: th-cam.com/video/xN1KUuyWstA/w-d-xo.html
Ice Follies of 1939 archive.org/details/7-h-3-1-c-3-60-ll-13-06-1939-1939
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Further Reading
www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-worst-movies-1939-angel-was/15495612/
Harvard Lampoon Worst of 1939
www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-worst-films-1939/153157240/
The Rains Came Review
www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-1939-the-rains-came/155296417/
New York Times Ice Follies 1939 Review
www.nytimes.com/1939/03/17/archives/the-screen-love-affair-a-bittersweet-romance-opens-at-the-music.html
Angels Wash Their Faces New York Times Review
www.nytimes.com/1939/09/04/archives/the-screen-angels-wash-their-faces-a-first-national-picture-is.html
Hotel for Women: 10 Worst Films of 1939
www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-item-worst-film-hotel-for-wome/154955789/
My mother was an original Ice Follies cast member, from 1936 to 1947. She used to speak about making Ice Follies of 1939 at MGM at the same time as they were shooting The Wizard Of Oz.
She's one of the skaters in the movie, but I'd probably need to see a pristine print on a big screen to pick her out among the other skaters in the line.
That’s a great story; thx for sharing!
Lou Ayres was one of Hollywood's greatest underrated performers. Underbilled as an actor, he directed too. When the War came, his status as a conscientious objector gave him a black eye, even though he served as a combat medic with distinction. His career was never the same but he kept working, discovered television, and was nominated for an Emmy. He deserved a better deal, and in a time when there were lots of "cheap" Hollywood stars, he was the real deal.
Lew Ayers deserved better. He was a chameleon.
He had the most wonderful speaking voice.
'The Ice Follies of 1939 ' was the movie Joan Crawford was preparing for in the opening scenes of 'Mommie Dearest'.
Ironically she plays Cinderella in the Ice Follies movie, where the Mommie Dearest film had her very much in a Wicked Stepmother archetype
No wonder she took it out on Christina.
I was always curious. No more.
@benmulvey2704 Correction 'The Ice Follies of 1939' was the movie 'Faye 'Dunaway thinly disguised as Joan Crawford' was preparing for in the opening scenes of 'Mommie Dearest'.
When I saw the title, I immediately clicked. This kind of video is made for me! As it turns out, it was full of weird personal connections. I came across IDIOT'S DELIGHT decades ago when I was writing my dissertation (which became my first book, DICTATORS, DEMOCRACY, AND AMERICAN PUBLIC CULTURE) on U.S. reactions to the European dictatorships...though the film eventually ended up on my dissertation's cutting-room floor. Harry Rapf, criticized producer of ICE FOLLIES OF 1939, was the grandfather of my former University of Oklahoma colleague Joanna Rapf, who helped found OU's Film and Media Studies Department. And Louis Bromfield, whose novel was the source material for WHEN THE RAINS CAME, was the most famous resident of my wife's hometown, Mansfield, Ohio (it was on his estate just outside Mansfield, Malabar Farm, that Bogart and Bacall were married).
Linda Darnell came a long way by the time she was in A Letter to Three Wives. She matched her co-star Ann Sothern with her wise cracks and gold digging dame persona and was wonderful in that role.
Excellent movie!
So right about Lew Ayres! He’s wonderful along with Edward Everett Horton in Holiday, my favorite Grant:Hepburn pairing.
I loved the scene where Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn did some acrobatics!
Holiday is my Favorite Movie Ever. And Ayres gives a beautiful performance as what night be the most complicated character, who starts out seeming like comedy relief until you realize he's intentionally drinking himself to death.
Holiday: the overlooked Hepburn /Grant movie. But Lew Ayres stole the show.
Growing up in the early 1980s, local (NYC) Channel 5 would show all the "Dead End Kids" movies on Sunday mornings till the afternoons, intermittently with Abbott & Costello and Tarzan films. Those movies were zany! My family often went to church on the Sundays, so I would try to catch the FIRST half hour of one Dead End Kids film, and by the time we returned from Mass I would catch the LAST hour of another Dead End Kids flick. To this day, I've never seen an entire flick, but I've seen them all!! LOL
Channel 5 - METROMEDIA I belive!
Channel 9 - WOR TV
Channel 11 - WPIX
LOL...yep, native New Yorker here too. I used to watch the 4:30 movie. MOST of the older movies from the 30s and 40s were 90 minutes which fit in perfectly with the hour and half time slot given. But sometimes newer movies were shown and the butcher the film with editing to make it fit. I was always confused with the plot in those instances. Also, invariably my mother would serve dinner at 10 minutes to 6 and call me to the table and I'd be like "MOM, I only have 10 minutes left in the film" Which didn't fly with my mother so I missed the last 10 minutes of so many movies!
The Bowery Boys comedies with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were very entertaining, partly because they were just "loose" - they counted on their actors knowing how to be funny.
@@ChrisWilson-d8k Yep...I remember the Dead End Kids and the Bowery Boys being on Channel 5 - METROMEDIA when I was a kid back in the '70's.
@@ChrisWilson-d8k Channel 9 was owned by RKO and Channel 11 was owned by Tribune.
@ChrisWilson-d8k On Saturday's however Channel 5 had the Drive In Movie showing 2 or 3 Kung Fu films from 1pm to 6pm! Than it be a 70s crime/detective film (Charles Bronson takes on the mob, or something!). That's when my dad would take over the TV! Ha ha
Lew Ayres is SO wonderful. Love him in everything! Always a quiet but memorable presence.
I love every minute of "The Rains Came," watched it 100 times. (And yes, I read the book. Once.) Tyrone is INCREDIBLY handsome in it, probably the handsomest of all his movies. And -- incredible special effects, Myrna, Ouspenskaya, ELEPHANTS! Angel Clarence and Jane Darwell. And one of Norma Desmond's waxworks as the Maharaja. Oh, come on, what's not to love? Even George Brent is entertaining there. A weak script? Who cares, with all that juicy stuff?
"Idiot's Delight" is also eminently watchable. I'm not a big fan of Clark Gable, but his song and dance act is unforgettable. Yes, Norma Shearer overacts, but she SHOULD overact in that part, so she did alright. And she is stunning. And sings well in Russian.
love the rains came too.
Special photo effects by Fred Sersen (and his dept) includes the most daring and accomplished "matte" effects of possibly the entire era of film.
Truth is, all major studio productions of the era have a certain standard of quality. The direction, writing, cinematography, costumes, music, set design etc. were all highly professional, if nothing special. The studios also had a vast supply of competent character actors (like Ann Southern) who could lighten up even a mediocre film. Finally, until one became a really big star, the major players - Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford etc. - had no real control over their projects. They did what they were assigned to do, did it competently, and didn't complain (publicly). That's why actors of that era needed to know how to do everything with credibility - ride a horse, sing and dance, wear a fedora - 'cause you never knew what the studio was going to stick you with.
Anyone who could claim that "The Rains Came" is a bad movie needs to have their eyes checked. A rare time Myrna Loy received top billing ( and deserved it since she carried the movie). I love the fact that an actress known for playing "the Perfect Wife" portrayed a wife that was anything but perfect. Second, George Brent. Two of his best performances in 1939. Dark Victory and this movie. As Lady Edwina's former lover, George Brent was just ideal in the role. The chemistry with Myrna Loy was so good( they did costar in an earlier movie). Was Tyrone Power miscast? Is the Pope Catholic?. But so what. The special effects were magnificent ( and Academy Award Winning). And of course, a tragic ending. Since Myrna Loy played an adulteress and this was 1939, naturally she has to die at some point. And it was a great death scene. I think im overdue for watching this "bad movie" again.
I couldn't have said it better. Oh, wait, I tried (see above). But good job @jamesryan6008. The Rains Came is that rarity of the 1930s - the smart, observant movie (and they had all but disappeared in the 1940s). This channel has lost a lot of cred with this wrong-headed claim. Maybe @CinemaCities1978 is confusing it with 1955's "The Rains of Ranchipur." Now, THAT was a bad movie.
James Stewart was in another turkey that year: "Made for Each Other," in which a couple who live in a fancy apartment and can afford to hire a servant whine about how poor they are. Also from 1939 was "The Return of Doctor X," a vampire movie with Humphrey Bogart in one of his strangest roles. "Code of the Secret Service," one of Ronald Reagan's Brass Bancroft movies, came out that year; Reagan claimed it was the only one of his movies that he never saw, and he always resisted attempts by others to trick him into seeing it.
I wouldn't have blamed Reagan if he never saw any of his own movies, with the exception of Kings Row.
Joan Crawford always delivered her best, no matter the schlock mgm assigned her.
In truth, Crawford may very well be Hollywood's greatest historical mystery. She was in mostly bad movies, three of her best performances were in films she did not carry (Grand Hotel, The Women, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), and her most famous role (Mildred Pierce) although it won her a hard to explain Oscar, is a popular but minor melodrama which is only a little better than most on her resume. That she lasted as long as she did (over forty years?!) is unfathomable, considering how much she increasingly resembled an old, bad drag queen. Michael Redgrave described her acting style best: "How splendid that she can still out-stare us all." In fairness, she was very good in two star vehicles (Strange Cargo, Humoresque).
'It's the scripts LB.....BAD pictures....BAD directors!'
Well, this is where she complained to Louis B. Mayer about why her box office value had diminished. It was not her, it was the bad movies they cast her in as if to ruin her career after all she had done for MGM years before.
@@RayPointerChannel Joan got the last laugh on Mayer two years after mgm drove her out with Mildred Pearce.
I actually LOVE The Rains Came. It’s the only George Brent movie where he doesn’t act like a total stiff.
Recently discovered your channel and love it. Always well researched and well presented. Keep up the good work. 😊
Lol. I was so blinded by Myrna Loy and Tyrone Power’s beauty and the special effects that I didn’t know The Rains Came was a bad movie.
I think she'd find 'Earthquake' one of the worst films of 1974! LOL
It isn't. By no stretch of the imagination is it bad
As for me, I was so confused by the excellent script, sensitive direction and tremendous supporting cast I didn't realize it either. Oh, wait. @CinemaCities1978 is just wrong. There ya go.
The Rains Came has a beautiful score. Sometimes I will play certain scenes just to listen to that score. But I'm under no illusion that it's a great film, though "worst of the year" might be a tad exaggerated.
That wig of Norma Shearer's in Idiot's Delight is a crime against nature.
Maybe that horrible wig was responsible for her atrocious overacting. 😳
The worst thing about the movie, "Idiot's Delight", was its name!
@@rongendron8705 Yes, I never really understood that. Perhaps it was explained in Sherwood's stage play.
Here's a hint: "worst of the year" is always exaggerated.
The wig Norma wore in that movie was the second ugliest in movie history. That thing on Barbara Stanwyck's head in "Double Indemnity" takes top( or bottom) spot.
Now I'm dying to see a revival theatre program a Worst Films of 1939 retrospective. Thanks!
Great fun. I have to agree with you about Lew Ayres top actor Johnny Belinda one of my favourites.
I saw the Ice Follies one on Turner Classics, and I've never laughed so much at something that wasn't a comedy. Those bizarre skating routines at the end were sublimely awful.
I'm glad you laughed. I was SO bored watching it. I expected it to be better.
Great idea! Years ago I did a 61 day blog on Tumblr where I only consumed media from 1939. I watched 72 films, and I'd add three more to the list: Boys' Reformatory (an awful C film), The New Frontier (a B Western with John Wayne and Phylis Isley/Jennifer Jones, before Selznick changed her name & made her a star), and The Return of Doctor X (a deliciously bad Sci-Fi with Bogart, who thought it was so embarrassing he wouldn't admit to ever being in it!). BTW, I am a weirdo who actually loved Norma Shearer's performance in Idiot's Delight- for the shear campiness of it! 😄Her fake Russian character was so over the top it worked for me. "Omaha? Oh-MA-ha? Where is that? Persia?" 🤣
With Thanksgiving just around the corner in Canada and next month in the U.S., what a great time to feature some turkeys! Although, any picture with Ann Sheridan is immediately elevated for me.💘 Oh, and Linda Darnell! (swoon).
The Rains Came was actually remade, in 1955, as The Rains of Ranchipur, with Lana Turner, Richard Burton, and Fred MacMurray, of all people, in the George Brent role. If you think the original version was bad, check out the remake - it's a hoot!
When The Rains Came was being described, I kept thinking I'd seen this movie on TV as a kid, but it wasn't in black and white. So it was the Rains of Ranchipur I saw. I remember the flood and someone reporting that the Untouchables quarter had been washed away. Which confused the hell out of me because I was unaware of the caste system.
Yes, Richard Burton plays the Tyrone Power role and it is not an improvement on the original.
Extremely well done. Great choices for 'bad' films. The clips were superlative. The narration was authoritative yet amusing, offering fascinating facts and insights. Thanks for an enjoyable 22 minutes.
lew ayres was the love of ginger roger's life. a very under rated actor. I read her (miss rogers) autobiography and she never really explained why they divorced, though I would never have wanted lela rogers as a mother- in- law. she was very formidable lady, to put it politely.
I read Rogers autobiography also. I got the impression she always wanted her boyfriends / husbands to become teetotalers & was disappointed when they continued drinking alcohol
@@sgabig totally agree. she never served alcohol and avoided it, although she could play drunk perfectly. all 5 of her husbands drank though, 2 of them to death. I believe Ginger realised Lew, over decades, was never a drunk, just a man. simply. maybe he wanted children and she didn't or couldn't have them. whatever happened, both of them are icons and remembered.
Thank you for this, I loved it and am looking forward to viewing most of them 😊 I nearly fell over when Angels wash their faces came up. I watched that film at least once a week growing up in the 80s. I absolutely love it 😀 I think my video recorded from the TV must have worn out eventually! Thanks again 💝
Me too! Local (NYC) Channel 5 would play a Dead End Kids flick every Sunday morning/afternoon intermittently with Abbott and Costello or Tarzan in the early 1980s!
Hey, CC! Bang-up job once again, and I thought this was such a great video concept. I would love to see you do this for another year when you get the chance.
Wait, is Ice Follies of 1939 the film that Joan is preparing for in the opening scene of Mommie Dearest? I just realized I never knew what film that was until now.
Norma Shearer getting whacked multiple times in this video was not on my bingo card at all. The questionable "this has been one" after using that clip again at the end? I nearly spit my drink out. 😭😭😭
haha, I just posted the same thing about the opening of Mommy dearest before I read this. LOL
@@paillette2010 Great minds think alike! I always remembered that sequence, but would always forget to look it up the actual film after the fact.
@@DMovieman I fully had no idea this film existed. I mean, it should set a land speed record for repeated air time on TCM for the sheer fact that this trio is in it.
I didn't put two and two together with Ice Follies and that Mommy Dearest scene until it was mentioned here.
You may criticise The Rains Came but at least it has Maria Ouspenskaya.
"Ronald Reagan commits a multitude of Constitutional violations." Is this film where he got that idea? Yeah, these all look gruesome. Thx
My two cents: Joan Crawford never looked like a young ingenue-wife type. She has this severe face that always makes her look like she should play Cinderella's stepmother, and never Cinderella.
What a great video! I am definitely going to check out these titles! And can I just say …. How funny (and apt) was it to coin the term D.E.C.U. at 8:30? Genius! 🙏👍🏻❤️
I love Norma in Idiot's Delight. She's intentionally making fun of Garbo.
I will add that it's in the Gavin Lambert book. Norma was delighted that he (Gavin) got that about her performance.
So glad you’re back on TH-cam-another great video!
No one gets Norma Shearer in Idiots Delight - her performance is criticised for its artificiality, but that is exactly the point. She’s playing an American girl pretending to be a Russian countess so it’s is supposed to be artificial. She confirmed to her biographer, Gavin Lambert, that she was parodying Garbo in the role.
I can definitely see it - but there is a fine line between a character acting artificially and coming across as insufferable, and unfortunately Shearer crossed it. I'd say the director was probably partly to blame, this was clearly the performance he wanted. Shearer is usually better than this.
An interesting change of pace for Cinema Cities. Here’s proof that as much as Hollywood has changed there’s some things that stay the same - bad writing makes for bad movies. Good performances, effects or directing rarely fixes bad writing, leaning on stars, franchises and spectacle also rarely saves a film.
The "worst picture of 1939" is still better than the crap that Hollywood is currently turning out!
Ah, the movies of 2024, where men are men and sheep worry.
Agreed 💯
@@Paladin1873 where men were men and women were men and the sheep were nervous 😂
@@okay5045 and men were women and the sheep were really confused.
The major studios' productions were all had a certain "standard of competence," even those that aren't that good. The acting, photography and direction were always professional, even if the casting might have been off. Truth was, MGM spent much of the 30s making solid, if dull, biopix and "prestige pictures," while Warners was making all the fun action movies. After 1939, MGM hit its stride with the Arthur Freed musical unit.
You mentioned "Dodge City"in passing. I rewatched it yesterday, as a matter of fact. A great flick and Errol Flynn was super easy on the eyes lol.
This was a very enjoyable video and what made it so was that you didn’t rubbish everything about these films but gave a fair review
Excellent video as always!!!! Your channel is a gift for movie lovers.
Linda Darnell is one of the youngest actresses to play an adult role I have seen. The are plenty of Hollywood films going back to the 1910s in which you see teenage girls play young women.
Linda Darnell was 15 when she made this film. She also did “DayTime Wife” opposite Tyrone Power the same year.
Back in 1935 British actress Valerie Hobson, then 17, played the young wife of the “Werewolf of London”.
I think Hollywood producers had this penchant for casting jailbait in adult roles.
In 1942, Billy Wilder’s comedy, “The Major and The Minor” had Ginger Rogers turn this thing on its head by playing an adult woman masquerading as a 12-year-old girl in order to use a children’s fare train ticket.
I Believe Ann Miller and Ida Lupino were also playing mature roles while underage. Lupino was brought to Hollywood the story goes to play Alice in Wonderland, but when the studio heads saw her in person they knew that wouldn't work.
Idiots Delight is one of my favorite films of all time. Norma Shearer is in her wackiest role of all time and she's fabulous.
I like Gable's version of Puttin' on the Ritz better than others I have seen .
Good point about Lew Ayres, one the most underrated of all Hollywood actors. His tragicomic portrayal of the boozy, frustrated son of an overbearing tycoon father in "Holiday" (1938 with Grant & Hepburn) is brilliant. Edward Everett Horton is also very good in that.
Norma Shearer was a wonderful actress. She started in silent films. She’s not to everyone’s enjoyment but I always appreciate the hard work she put into her acting. Since I’ve seen more movies than you have, narrator, I think I appreciate more ranges of acting methods than you do and Norma Shearer is one of the best actresses of American films. She took an ordinary role of Mrs. Stephen Haynes in the women and she turned it into a three dimensional character. She could’ve easily been washed out by the great Rosalind Russell and Marjorie Main and Paulette Goddard. But Norma Shearer shines in the movie the women. I don’t understand the movie Idiots Delight but Clark Gable was handsome and Norma Shearer was Norma Shearer.
66 here. I grew up watching silents and pre-code.
I agree with our vid host. Norma could be a little stagey.
Really the only reason one anyone remembers "Idiot's Delight" is to see Gable's "Puttin' in the Ritz" song and dance routine LOL The fact that it was released with two completely different alternate endings (I recall TCM playing both endings consecutively when they broadcast the film) shows that no one quite knew what to do with the property.
While I don't hate The Dead End Kids, I have to admit that I do find Leo Gorcey incredibly irritating so I do understand some of the hate...
I had this video randomly recommended by TH-cam, and I’m glad I found your channel, since I love classic films. Subscribed!
I have not seen all the movies cited in this video. In fact, I have seen only The Rains Came and Idiot’s Delight. I think The Rains Came is fine, if we judge it on its own merits and in the context of its time. I think the main weaknesses are the script and the direction. We all know that Tyrone Power was a competent actor, and it’s not his fault that the studio cast him as an Indian doctor. In 1939, it was typical for actors to be cast in roles of just about any background. By the standards of 1939, The Rains Came is quite progressive; Power’s character is not a caricature, but is portrayed as intelligent, dignified, moral, and heroic. The rest of the characters, including Myrna Loy’s (disappointingly), are underwritten and presented as standard melodrama stereotypes. Boooring! Disaster movies were a quite new genre, and while Clarence Brown was an experienced director, he was more comfortable with juicy dramatic/romantic material a la Garbo than big action sequences, so I think the pacing and emotional impact of The Rains Came are uneven. Luckily, the rains/flooding scenes delivered for dramatic climax and set a standard for those kinds of visual sequences. My verdict: Not my favorite movie, but it doesn’t deserve to be on the list of the worst movies of 1939!
I had forgotten that Clarence Brown ALSO directed Idiot’s Delight (thanks, IMDB), and I personally think that movie IS a stinker! I always wondered if it was butchered in the editing room or something, in addition to the script being completely bastardized from the play. None of the characters have emotional depth. The whole movie is so “cringe”, and I really consider Clark Gable to be utterly miscast (a singing/dancing entertainer traveling with a troupe of attractive chorus girls? REALLY?). Norma Shearer’s over-acting and artifice may be bad acting or they MAY be a result of how the character was written? Irene is SUPPOSED to be fake. But who cares? Everybody in the movie seems to be going through the motions of the plot, but nobody even remotely resembles a real person. My verdict: This movie deserves every razzing it gets, even more so because of the abundant lost potential. What if MGM had actually made a bitingly satirical, witty movie about the follies of humanity in a region on the brink of major war even as it was still reeling from its last major war? What if the casting and acting had produced characters that audiences could understand, perhaps even empathize with? What if Norma Shearer had just said NO to that wig?!
I concur with regard to The Rains Came. Haven't seen Idiot's Delight but it sounds a film which should have stuck closer to its source material.
BABE WAKE UP CINEMA CITIES JUST UPLOADED
Good list. I think the worst quality of the Rains Came is the miscasting. I do like it for its visuals. Love your videos.
The storm scenes left me wishing I could have seen it on a big screen!
The rest of the movie is a real curiosity. I'm real curious about how it got so bad.
@@notpurrfect6397 it is miscast and the story is not very deep? But it it better than the other movies on this list.
if a kid in my class is sleeping on the street and earning Bs I'm proud, not scolding them wtf
Who would have thought rolling your "r's" would ever attempt to become a thing on its own merit. Thanks for another of your insightful and well constructed presentations that enhances my otherwise limited knowledge of film.
A very witty and entertaining analysis of the worst cinematic outings of the last year of peace.
Norma Shearer never stopped being a melodramatic silent movie vamp.
I always had an irrational dislike of Norma Shearer - it makes me feel less lonely knowing that I'm not the only one
@@sgabig Well, it was politics since she was married to Irving Thalberg and most likely had stock in the studio. So she was the "Queen" of the studio, regardless of her talents.
@@RayPointerChannel Yeah - that was my suspicion as well - that Shearer possibly got her job thru nepotism
@@sgabigYou didn't even know the woman so what a ridiculous dislike to have.
@@Garsons-oq4lh I admitted as such in my original post - that my dislike was entirely irrational. I concede she very well could have been a lovely person in real like.
Very impressed by your work! Some streamer should snap you for a permanent gig. Your stories are highly watchable for film buffs who all know for every famous film there are dozens more with the same actors and great backstories. Congrats.
There were 365 movies made in 1939 and you barely scratched the surface!
The average American went to the movies three times a week in those days, so there was a demand for lots of product. Probably half of those movies were solid, if not spectacular, B-Westerns, all but lost or forgotten. After all, William Boyd alone made something like 65 Hopalong Cassidy movies in the 30s - 40s.
Im a new subscriber, so I don’t know if this is part of a series. It should be. It’s really good.
This is my first time coming to your channel, and I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to watching some of your other videos. Thanks for the effort.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful foray into the 'justly forgotten'. I will give 'Idiot's Delight' a try. I have a soft spot for Linda Darnell, she of the velvety voice and the aggressively brunette looks in a sea of blondes. Her acting improved massively, I suppose. She dominates 'A Letter to Three Wives' with her great performance, having stolen 'My Darling Clementine' from Henry Fonda (let alone the lesser actor that was Victor Mature) a couple of years earlier, despite the silly sombrero and the even sillier name she was given.
As for goddess Myrna...I could watch anything with her in it.
"Idiot's Delight" might have been better if Warner Brothers had produced it. After all, this was the year that WB released "Confession of a Nazi Spy".
THE RAINS CAME does have beautiful cinematography.
It's also cool to see Crawford in ICE FOLLIES, in her prime in technicolor.
I recently rewatched all the That's Entertainment films. My big gripe with those films is not always sharing which films the song and dance numbers come from. Thanks for enlightening me on this one! 18:20
Great video! I haven't laughed this much in a long time!❤
thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it because it was so fun to make.
1939 is the greatest year in film - this is so cleaver and humorous. A great idea - and it was an amazing year of horror for many.
I've seen some of the worst o your list, they are as good as most of the movies out today with 1% of the budget. The acting and dance is far superior, the writing is orders of magnitude better.
My father joined the army in 1939, he got signed up to Republic Studios after the war. He was a dancer / performer in vaudeville as a teenager with his brother. I grew up in Hollywood yet you know movies better than I. I'm so impressed with your channel - pretty sure Alice Fay and Betty Davis are fans as well -
Excellent. I have to check out Ice Follies. And Dead End Cinematic Universe is very clever.
Thank you. I'm sure it's time-consuming but more of these "worst" compilations would be great.
Bless you for appreciating Lew Ayres.
Johnny Belinda has always been a favorite.
Norma Shearer’s hair in “Idiot’s Delight”… I feel like I’ve seen that hairstyle somewhere else before… it’s kinda memorable 😆
Worst of 1939 is better than most films today!
I’ve been earnestly waiting for another video. You never disappoint. :)
I hope u will do more “worst” films of 1939. Love your channel
I disagree about saying 1939s They made me a criminal is among the worst of that year. Garfield is in good form in one of his earliest roles. True, it is somewhere far fetched, but it is a feel good movie that is still entertaining.
Yes, agreed. That's a good movie and Garfield is terrific.
I liked Angels Wash Their Faces. Does it have a contrived plot? Yes. But the Dead End Kids make it enjoyable.
I love every crazy, off the all minute of Angels Wash Their Faces. Truly a film where you can never guess what's going to happen next. 😂
I was preparing for a fight over this one but found all your assessments balanced and eminently fair and accurate. I like Idiot's Delight but agree it does not achieve its potential greatness. The Rains Came is beautiful looking, as you say, but doesn't quite capture the vigor of Fox's previous disaster hit, In Old Chicago.
This came up in my feed and now a fan of this channel! Love the looks at old Hollywood and noir!
the acidic snark in this women's commentary would bore a hole through a bank vault.
Ice Follies kinda reminds me of The Greatest Show on Earth in that it's basically just a showcase of a very specific spectacle interspersed with actors trying their absolute HARDEST to make the insane dialogue work, and for that, it has an almost scrappy, endearing quality to it. Plus Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford, and Lew Ayres is a massively stacked cast, enough so that I rewatch sometimes to daydream about a better film with them in it.
Yeah, dunno what you're talking about re The Rains Came - I mean, it's a near-great film, certainly far better and more adult than the admittedly fun, but soapy/idiotic Dark Victory. Okay, it's not perfect, it has its flaws. But it's a helluva lot better than, for example, In Old Chicago - or even San Francisco. It has sublety, flair, subtext, style, intelligence. George Brent is generally underrated, by the way, and although his casting is typical of the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s - picture Ronald Colman here, or anyone actually British - but Brent gets it just fine. Brenda Joyce has some uneven moments, and Myrna Loy is about as British as Harpo Marx, but is otherwise effective. But Maria Ouspenskaya? Mary Nash?? Nigel Bruce??? H. B. Warner???? Jane Darwell?????? Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Travers, Joseph Schildkraut??????? All doing yeoman work in a fine screenplay.
Sorry. You just don't see it, do you? Think of it as a precursor to The Jewel in the Crown. Yeah, dunno what you're talking about here.
The contaminated glass of water scene is as thrilling as any of Hitchcock's best.
When I was taking care of my mom, we watched hundreds of old movies. The rule was,"if it has a bunch of stars and we've never heard of it, it's going to be a stinker!"
This was hysterical Great watch There were some real superstar's in these duds or perhaps they should be described as inconsistent. I'd happily watch more of these types of videos. Great comments too
Correction: In "The Ice Follies of 1938" Joan Crawford's character did not leave Stewarts character for Hollywood fame...she found out he used wire hangers after marrying him...
No that was Faye Dunaway.
I think this is the movie that is in the opening scene of Mommy Dearest (the ice skating one) It seems like they have Dunaway in an ice skating costume. I'd never heard of this movie (TCM, how'd you miss this one?) and so never could understand why she was in that outfit.
Yes! It's wild how that opening scene ended up referencing THIS film of all the films in her filmography.
You're right; it is indeed this film. 'We're ready for you Miss Crawford.' 'Let's go!'
Damn… I wanna watch all of these now… I’ve seen so many lame 1930s movies but they still had their charms
Good video. Norma Shearer overacting? Whoda thunk? 😅
I liked Ms Shearer in Idiot's Delight. She was playing a phony Countess so why shouldn't she overact? I found her performance quite witty. Yes, she could be actressy in her roles, often with too many hand gestures. But she was just as often surprising, as in the final scenes from Marie Antoinette. And she was very funny in Private Lives with Robert Montgomery. Of course she was ludicrously miscast as Juliet but her line readings were impressive.
Most classic "Bad" movies are far better than all the crap made today.
I don't think "The Rains Came" should be on this list. The three leads (Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy & George Brent) and most of the supporting cast give competent performances while Maria Ouspenskaya is excellent as the Maharani. Clarence Brown's direction of this movie is more than adequate. We should be careful when applying 21st Century standards to a motion picture made 85 years ago such as casting of White actors for a story set in India or the dodging of issues dealing with Colonialism. Certainly, the world has changed since when this film was made, but its story is essentially that of a woman's redemption amid a natural disaster. I feel in any year aside from 1939 the movie would have had a more positive reputation and it is a much better film than the 1955 remake "The Rains of Ranchipur."
Having only seen The Rains Came, and Idiot’s Delight, I can’t speak for the others. I saw TRC because of Tyrone Power, and ID because of the subject matter. You were right on about both films, but they were given the “A” treatment and should’ve been much better. In both films I could find something in them to enjoy and focus on, and, superficially, are worthy for a viewing. I own both films, so there it is. BTW, the remake of TRC, The Rains of Ranchipur, is just as good (or bad) as its predecessor. As much as I love classic films, so many of them are afraid to tackle important subject matters, but they at times will make up for it with great stars and good production values. Hooray for Hollywood!
Ronald Reagan was one of those actors who deliver their lines like they're reading a shopping list.
He did pretty well playing the President!!!
I first watched the Dead End Kids movies as a young lad. Thought they were hectic but fun. After age 10, however.
I still want to watch some of these. Thank you for this. 🎬
I am with you 100% on your opinions of Tyrone power ,- hubba hubba indeed! - and Norma Shearer.
She acted as if she were on the stage; just a little too big for screen. I'm not a fan of her Mid-Atlantic accent, honestly.
She ain't Katherine Hepburn.
A fun video, thanks! Two pronunciation corrections: It's SHURE-wood, not SHARE-wood; and it's SY-racuse not SARE-acuse.
As I always say, I love how you love it. Ice Follies is so bad, I've never seen it. The others I want to see right now, except When the Rains Came.
Thank you!
Thank you so much!!! 😊
But, Oh so much more entertaining than just about any film one could watch today! And what Stars!
Maria Ouspenskaya is not to be missed in any film in which she was involved.
And that includes "The Rains Came".
Looking forward to watching this when I get home!
That was a lot of fun. Thanks. 🙏
Keep it up kid... You are going places:)
Shearer’s “Russian” act must have had some connection with Garbo’s Ninotchka. Parody? Cheap knock-off? Now I’ll have to shorten my life by 90 minutes to see it.
According to the Ultimate Movie Rankings website, the worst movie of 1939 was "The Return of Doctor X", featuring Humphrey Bogart (!) as the title character. Also in the Bottom 10:
"Calling Dr Kildaire", "Over The Moon", "Code of the Secret Service", "Women in The Wind", "Broadway Serenade", "Million Dollar Legs", "King of the Turf", "Winter Carnival" and "Bridal Suite".
The Golden Age of Hollywood always shined with its bonkers films! Please do one on guilty pleasure B-movies.
Check out Carolina Blues starring Ann Miller, Kay Kyser and his band are basically like The Muppets. It’s a zany movie!
I think a term I heard as a kid describes these films they were called "Golden Turkeys" I think this is a perfect description of some of these movies.
I adore Lew Ayers too! I can watch "Johnny Belinda" over and over.
Whoever put that Lord Farquad wig on Norma Shearer committed a crime against humanity