TCM 1939

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Across the pond, here they are doing a tribute to the films of 1939 on the Turner Classic Movie netwrok. 19 films in all. The ad promo is that it was the only time in history that all of movie making was unified in supreme talent. Does anyone agree?

Can anyone offer me a reason to watch?
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Reasons to watch...well, I've seen but a few (can tell you about Only Angels Have Wings and Hunchback of Notre Dame once I've watched them). I will say, however, that TCM is just about the best station I know of. Basically all that I watch.

Stagecoach and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are excellent, and I highly recommend them both.

The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind are both pleasing, and rightfully famous.

I also enjoyed Gunga Din (a film all Indy fans should see).

As for the year itself, well admittedly, it does have more films in the AFI Top 100 list than any other year (5 - Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and Wuthering Heights).

I really don't think we can say that one year was head and shoulders above the rest, but 1939 certainly may be the top candidate.
 

Kill Cavalry

New member
I enjoyed eveyone of those movies, save Wuthering Heights. Perhaps it is my own impatient nature, but the movie was not very entertaining, sluggish, and downright boring compared to the book (which is saying something).
 

Pilot

New member
Check out the gear the pilots wore in "Only Angels Have Wings," the hats, the leather jackets, the guns and gun belts, the shirts, the pants, and the boots. A great film.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Yes, that was a great film, Only Angels Have Wings. I highly recommend it to Indy fans.

The fellow that played "The Kid," (the one who's younger brother was killed in the plane with the guy who returns), Thomas Mitchell, had a fantastic year in 1939. Besides the Howard Hawks film, he was in John Ford's Stagecoach, Gone With the Wind, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Also, the name of the fictional town in Only Angels Have Wings should be familiar to Indy fans...Barranca.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Well, that sounds rather interesting...great series of articles, actually...I wouldn't mind getting involved, if there's an opportunity for it...

But anyway, I've seen Wuthering Heights, and it is one of the greatest screen romances. Rather melodramatic I suppose, but that's part of it's charm. And it's photographed by the great Gregg Toland...one of the best, the man who shot (no, not Liberty Valance) The Grapes of Wrath and Citizen Kane, among others.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Renderking Fisk said:
Attila the Professor said:
Well, that sounds rather interesting...great series of articles, actually...I wouldn't mind getting involved, if there's an opportunity for it...

Well, as long as you have something to say and you can tie it into the retro-Golden Era lifestyle and Rugged indvidualism, lets see what you got.

Sure, I'll think about that.
 
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