Shall We Dance {1937}

This was the first Astaire & Rogers film I ever watched. And that was just during the last week of December! :-) I don't know why I didn't watch their films sooner!! I love Fred and Ginger together! Ginger is so cute! =) And the Gershwin brothers did the music for this film too, it was their first Hollywood film. Making this one awesome movie!!! Can you tell I liked this movie?

And they dance together while roller skating!! How fun is that?!?! I think it is my favorite number in the whole film. Oh, and it is called, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off. =)

Summary of the film -

Peter P Peters (Astaire), an American ballet dancer billed as 'Petrov' dances for a ballet company in Paris owned by the bumbling Jeffrey Baird (Horton). Peters secretly wants to blend classical ballet with modern jazz dancing, and when he sees a photo of tapdancer Linda Keene (Rogers), he falls in love with her. He contrives to meet her, but she's less than impressed. They meet again on a liner travelling back to New York. Unknown to them, a plot is launched as a publicity stunt, 'proving' that they're actually married. Peters and Keene, unable to scotch the rumour, decide to actually marry and immediately divorce. But they discover that they prefer being married. {via. Wikipedia} 

Quotes -

Arthur Miller: What does your watch say?  Jeffrey Baird: It says, "Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick." 

~Ashley

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew {1939}

My whole teen years were spent reading the Five Little Peppers series. Thats why I was so excited to find out one day, that TCM was showing all the Pepper movies that had been made in 1939 & 1940. :)

The casting was quite good. Ronald Sinclair played Jasper King and he was just how I imagined him. And Dorothy Ann Seese, who played Phronsie Pepper was simply adorable! Well, the cast was just wonderful!

The storyline in the movies are off from the original story in the books, but they kept the spirit. They also changed the era from the 1880s to the 1930s. It looks like the movies never came out on VHS, or DVD - in the little research I've done. Hopefully someday they will. As they are great movies!

~Ashley

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry {1937}

Oh, how I love the pairing of Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland! ;-) But whats even better is that Ronald Sinclair (Five Little Peppers, The Christmas Carol, Desperate Journey) is in this movie too! The role Sinclair played was originally written for Freddie Bartholomew, and I can see that. And guess what? The actor who played the Grandfather in Little Lord Fauntleroy, C. Aubrey Smith, plays the Grandfather in this movie too. =)

Timmie Donovan, Mickey Rooney, playes a tough Jockey who can really win those races. (If you've seen Boys Town his character will remind you of Whitey Marsh.) That is until his father pretends to be sicks and tricks Mickey into throwing a race. His father will make you angry throughout the entire film. It also has the wonderful Judy Garland who plays Cricket West, a girl who lives at the jockey boarding house. And then Ronald Sinclair, the English boy who travels with his Grandfather over to America to race their horse in the races. 


This has to be one of my favorite Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney films that I have seen. As it is simply marvelous!!! :)

Trivia - 

MGM's top juvenile actor of 1937, Freddie Bartholomew, had been announced to play Roger Calverton, but Freddie's Aunt Cissy (who also was his adopted mother) withdrew him before production started because of a contract dispute. In later years, Judy Garland would quip that Freddie really opted out because his voice was changing. 

~Ashley

"Swing Time" - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers

I LOVE, LOVE, Ginger's dress in this clip! It is so pretty! :D

You Can't Take It With You {1938}

Ah, yes. Another great Frank Capra film! :) You know what? His films are so good, and truthful. What his movies talk about are so relevant for today - still. Like there is a scene in this film that talked about income tax. The grandfather was questioning the government worker on why they taxed income. He asked, what did they do with his money? Let me find the scene on YouTube. :)







A rich banker is trying to buy up a city block to build a factory. Except one family won't sell their house, causing this banker lots of trouble. Also unknowing to the banker at first, his son has fallen in love with the granddaughter of the owner of the house that won't sell. Starring a stellar cast of: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, and Edward Arnold. This movie is wonderful! And will make you feel good.

- Favorite Quotes - 

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Maybe it'll stop you trying to be so desperate about making more money than you can ever use? You can't take it with you, Mr. Kirby. So what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends.

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Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: How would you like to come over to our house and work on your gadgets?
Poppins: Your house? Well I don't know, thank you.
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Oh go on, you'll love it. Everybody at over at our place does just what he wants to do.
Poppins: Really?
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Mmm-hmmmm.
Poppins: That must be wonderful. But how would I live?
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: The same way we do.
Poppins: The same way? Well who takes care of you?
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: The same One that takes care of the lilies of the field, Mr. Poppins, except that we toil a little, spin a little, have a barrel of fun. If you want to, come on over and become a lily too. 

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Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Penny, why don't you write a play about Ism-Mania?
Penny Sycamore: Ism-Mania?
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Yeah, sure, you know, Communism, Faschism, Voodoo-ism, everybody's got an -ism these days.
Penny Sycamore: Oh
[laughs]
Penny Sycamore: I thought it was some kind of itch or something.
Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Well, it's just as catching. When things go a little bad nowadays, you go out, get yourself an -ism and you're in business. 

~Ashley

The Adventures of Robin Hood {1938}

Last night I watch the wonderful, swashbuckling film, The Adventures of Robin Hood {1938} with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Basil Rathbone.  

The only other Robin Hood I've seen was the live-action Disney film, The Story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men {1952} with Richard Todd. Which is good, but the Errol Flynn version is so much better! ;-)

Sir Robin of Locksley, defender of the Saxons, runs into trouble with the Norman authority and is forced to turn outlaw. With his band of Merry Men, he robs from the rich, gives to the poor and still has time to woo the lovely Maid Marian, and foil the cruel Sir Guy of Gisbourne, and keep Prince John off the throne. It makes all for one exciting film, filled with adventure, sword fights (hurray!), and romance.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Robin Hood: I'll organize revolt, exact a death for a death, and I'll never rest until every Saxon in this shire can stand up free men and strike a blow for Richard and England. 
Prince John: Are you finished? 
Robin Hood: I'm only just beginning. From this night forward I'll use every means in my power to fight you! 


Will Scarlett: I'm tired. Robin Hood: What? After a nice refreshing sleep in the green wood? Will Scarlett: I pulled seven acorns out of my ribs. Robin Hood: Lovely, fresh air... Will Scarlett: My teeth ache with chattering. Robin Hood: Nightingales singing... Will Scarlett: An owl hooting in my ear. Robin Hood: Hooting? He was singing you to sleep! 

Lady Marian Fitzswalter: Tell me: when you are in love, is it hard to think of anybody but one person? Bess: Yes, indeed, m'lady, and sometimes it's a bit of trouble sleeping. Lady Marian Fitzswalter: I know! But it's a nice kind of not sleeping! Bess: Yes. And it affects your appetite, too. Not that I've noticed it's done that to you, 'cept when he was in the dungeon waiting to be hanged. Lady Marian Fitzswalter: And does it make you want to be with him all the time? Bess: Yes. And when he's with you, your legs are as weak as water. Now, tell me, m'lady: when he looks at you, do you feel a kind of pricky feeling, like goosey pimples running all up and down your spine? Lady Marian Fitzswalter: [blushes] Bess: Then there's not a doubt of it! Lady Marian Fitzswalter: A doubt of what? Robin Hood: [eavesdropping from the window] That you're in love!





~Ashley

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell {1939}

A funny. Hilarious. Charming story, though not completely historical accurate Story of Alexander Graham Bell {1939}.  Minus that little fact I still love this movie! =) I adore Henry Fonda as Tom Watson. While Loretta Young was charming and simply wonderful as Mabel Bell. Of course, Don Ameche was marvelous as Mr. Bell.

This movie showcases the story of Mr. Bell's discovery of the telephone and - finding love. The movie starts off with you learning about his work with the deaf. Through this work and his scientific side project he meets the Hubbard's. Which is when he meets his future wife - Mabel. You will see his adventures and labors as he tries to invent the wonderful invention - the telephone.

Here is some fun little trivia about the movie, all the Hubbard sisters are played by real life sisters - the Young sisters. How charming.

Quotes from the movie:

Mrs. Hubbard: Mr. Watson, please eat something. You must have the appetite of a bird. 
Thomas Watson: Yes, Ma'am, a vulture


Alexander Graham Bell: Your honor... Have I committed some offense by starving in an attic? by spending sleepless nights at my work? by being too poor to own a decent scrap of paper, on which to tell her of my love? I have sat here for days and heard myself called liar, thief, fraud and cheat. I've seen my friends humiliated, my invention belittled, just as I have seen my business destroyed by methods which must leave every honest man appalled. 
__________________________________________________________________________
Alexander Graham Bell: ...shall the lonely scientist, the man who dreams, and out of his dreams benefits the world, is he, that often half-starved, lonely little man, to be told the world has no need of him the moment his work is done?
Alexander Graham Bell: Is he to be told that others, less gifted, but stronger, men with money and power behind them, are waiting to take the product of his genius and turn it to their own uses? -leaving him with liar and thief branded on his brow as his only reward? Do that, and you stop the clock of progress. You smother the spark of genius that lies hidden here and there throughout the world. Do that, and the world stands still. 

~Ashley