ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

Man, was Michel Simon ever young??

I watched Deux Heures A Tuer, a middling French murder mystery from the 60's, and he's in it basically still playing the same kind of role.

The first five minutes of this one alone, my god ... the dissolve from a suspended man serving as the unwilling clapper to a gigantic bell to Marlene's guileless ingenue enjoying a spring swing

There's not many pre-1940 movies where I get insistant about seeing it projected onto a giant screen, but this is prob #1

I enjoyed this a great deal, but also it was quite the cheese-fest, and really stagey, I never once forgot that this was a film set with professional actors doing their thing. Not exactly a disqualifying factor, but I just didn't find any of this with Shanghai Express. Some of the shots were of course terrific, that one long tracking shot of the wedding feast for example. But there were also some odd editing mistakes, especially towards the end, and the use of intertitles was a bit of an unexpected throwback.

What this all oddly reminded me of was early-to-mid-70s gothic horror Doctor Who serials, like The Monster of Peladon. Just something about the way it felt, and the non-theatening cartoon villain.

None of those things are negatives in my experience

Fair enough! Will stress that I did like it.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/The_39_Steps_%281935%29_-_poster.jpg

The 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock, 1935
Morbsies #374

Perfect in its way.

this one is also on youtube, albeit in non-restored quality, if anyone has any tipoffs about a better quality stream then please share.

This is, I think, my 4th viewing of The 39 Steps, will try my best to have some new things to say about it!

I generally don't have much to say about Hitchcock's British stuff except that The Lady Vanishes is by a fair distance my favorite

Lucky to have seen L’Atalante in 35mm once. I believe it was at the Cinefamily in Los Angeles

Agree Lady Vanishes is best, but 39 Steps is a good 'un too. Love that final shot of them holding hands.

John Buchan in general a rather dull writer, aside from all the bigotry - safe to jump straight to Ambler imo.

Watched this again last night, it is kind of throwaway nonsense, but done so perfectly, not a moment is wasted. I love how Hitchcock doesn't hesitate in throwing out all of the dodgy or nonsensical stuff from Buchan's book and cutting it down to the essentials, then adding the brilliant "Mr Memory" plot and of course Pamela. Everything works so well that it's no wonder he recycled the film twice (Saboteur and North By Northwest)

Just been given a much better-quality upload by the youtube algorithm, in case anyone wants to watch this.

This is the film that makes certain purists think he should never have crossed the pond.

What a weird opinion, especially considering how much, as Camaraderie mentioned, this is a blueprint for NBNW. What do these people dislike in the American work, not enough location shooting?

the level of sexiness in 39 Steps is off the chart for a Brit flick of its era

What a weird opinion, especially considering how much, as Camaraderie mentioned, this is a blueprint for NBNW. What do these people dislike in the American work, not enough location shooting?

― Daniel_Rf,

Residual snobbery for Hitch's crossing the pond.

Well the egg's certainly on his face leaving the powerhouse of creativity that was the British film industry of the 1930's.

Why do some people like Buñuel’s Mexican films more than his French films?

Have you seen Simon of the Desert? There's your answer

Simon is the best

It really is. I like a lot of his Mexican films but I love neo-realism so..

Wouldn't say I prefer them to his French stuff though.

Why do some people like Buñuel’s Mexican films more than his French films?

― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs)

I'm not seeing this? He made more Mexican than French films, of variable quality.

Add another "some" if that works for you.

My question was kind of just really trying to make some kind of anology between Mexican Buñuel and British Hitchock, what was done with less gloss on a more limited budget in the native tongue.

Next you're going to point out that British and American English are the same language and Buñuel was Spanish, not Mexican.

I think my position that 80-90% of the best stuff of Hitchcock's career came from his American period is probably a minority one

I dunno, took a quick glance at the s&s 250 and all 4 Hitchocks I saw are US productions.

I think The Lady Vanishes, 39 Steps and The Lodger are highly rated but pitting the whole of the UK work vs the US stuff saying UK is superior feels like contrarianism.

Aside from anything else the UK stuff doesn't have Cary Grant or James Srewart!

I think my position that 80-90% of the best stuff of Hitchcock's career came from his American period is probably a minority one

― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.)

An opinion.

When Robin Wood published Hitchcock's Films in 1965, he was working against what he saw as the elevation of the UK films over the American. Of course, he was in the UK at the time, where that opinion may have been more prevalent. Nowadays, I'd say the US films are much more widely acclaimed (as is Hitchcock's work in general).

39 Steps and the o.g. Man Who Knew Too Much are maybe the only two of his pre-US films i love as much as the later stuff

Add The Lodger.

haven't watched that in an age and i probably should

I think my position that 80-90% of the best stuff of Hitchcock's career came from his American period is probably a minority one

To repeat what a couple of others point out, I think that's been far and away the common view for at least a couple of decades. To the point that his best British films probably get overlooked. I loved The Lady Vanishes the one time I saw it, probably as much as anything except Rear Window and Psycho.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Modern_Times_poster.jpg

Modern Times, Charles Chaplin, 1936
Morbsies #239
Sight & Sound Critics #78
Sight & Sound Directors #72

only clips available on youtube, open to suggestions about where it's available to watch, apart from torrents

Criterion do a UK regioned blu-ray of Modern Times.

xpost

The proposition that American Hitchcock was superior to English Hitchcock first pushed by French critics in the 1950s? Wood's first piece of film criticism, an essay on Psycho, rejected by Penelope Houston for Sight and Sound (because Wood hadn't acknowledged that Psycho was a 'comedy') but accepted by Cahiers du Cinema.

For at least the last thirty years, certain British critics - led by Charles Barr - have argued in favour of the English films, and it's quite an industry now. A former ILXOR published a good book-length study of The Lodger a year or so ago.

That former ilxor was often pushing against the notion that Brit cinema was bad when posting here. I guess being told Godard was god when you think it's juvenalia gets old.

I am not as negative as some (though I started like that), but I am not fully sold on the glories of it either. Saying the UK channeled a lot of those energies on making often excellent TV is hardly a disaster for culture.

Well, not in the 1930's tho!

I do remember a post by the poster who shall not be named saying Hitchcock was "miles ahead of everyone else in Britain" circa The Lodger.

I wanted to re-watch Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai, 2003) after it topped the mini-poll we ran a couple of months ago...and as I watched the first five mins it turned out I had never seen it lol.

What a film though. Just about perfect.

Always with Tsai in this period is to talent to assemble the right composition to convey sadness and hilarity.

Very much a film that will make you laugh and cry.

So, Modern Times then.

Definitely a big step up from City Lights I'd say, mostly appreciate it for the set design and cinematography, both of which are all-time, to the extent that it felt like The Tramp just got in the way from time to time. Once again the plot is just an excuse for a series of set pieces, which must be amazing if you are a fan of Chaplin and find him hilarious and adorable, but I have to conclude at this point that I just don't, sorry. Paulette Goddard is just wonderful though, such a modern actor, and much better than the simpering Virginia Cherrill. Doesn't have a great deal of chemistry with Chaplin, which is odd considering they married this year. The shot of them walking away together at the end is perfectly done, couldn't have imagined better.

So I'm not in love with this, but it's such a beautiful film that I don't really care.

39 steps on tptv this afternoon for the Britishers

oh no, that was the 59 version with Kenneth More

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Make_Way_for_Tomorrow_%281937_poster%29.jpg

Make Way for Tomorrow, Leo McCarey, 1937
Morbsies #723

And devastating as any Ozu.

*as