1936 poll

[rischka]

k thx greg. interesting (to me) that jolson and robinson were also friends and did busking together as kids in washington DC (according to wikipedia)

[Lencho of the Apes]

A thing passes into history...

in about nine hours.

[sally]

In 9 hours? I could have watched a couple more? Curses

[...]

k thx greg. interesting (to me) that jolson and robinson were also friends and did busking together as kids in washington DC

Hope that didn't come off harshly, I just wouldn't want people to think I felt Wonderbar was somehow acceptable in how it handled race. The "humor" of the big blackface number was typical for the time of course but the whole thing really can't be viewed as anything but racist, even as it has some other elements to it that work to give added meaning to the film as a whole.

Jolson's own history with race is another hard to put into context thing from today's perspective as he did get some awards and recognition from Black groups and sometimes credited black artists for part of his success, but he was also a bit of an egomaniac and may have pushed to get that recognition and would sometimes be harsh with those who said his success wasn't all his own doing. Jolson could say he took inspiration, but no one else could, allegedly. He did spend some time and money to better the lot of some Black artists, but also made it known he was doing so. He did work with and have friends in the Black community, as much as Jolson could be said to have friends of any sort, which is more than many celebrities did, so there was some legitimate interest and somewhat more liberal feeling than he would have needed to show or that many others bothered with at all, so how one wants to credit and debit that is somewhat complex and not easily decided from this moment in time.

[rischka]

lol it's ok. i'm glad i watched wonder bar but i'm still boycotting holiday inn

[thoxans]

looking forward to the best racist films poll!

[sally]

i didn't get enough nuance and i'm certainly not watching it again but i read somewhere that even as a 'tribute' it was ghastly since it was all exaggerated grotesque heavy clumpy racist actual dance gestures whereas robinson was a rather light, delicate, precise dancer. but that may be just be an overly careful critical take. it soured the rest of the film for me and it's all very well reminding my brain that it was made in a different context etc but i'm watching it now and i went argh, and that's that.

i don't really like song and dance stuff anyway. i know there's intellectual merit they bring but mostly i just sit there waiting for the noise to end so i can carry on watching the 'proper' movie. that is to say, i ain't gonna be watching another fred movie any time soon

[sally]

would have loved to have seen janosik

i hope, it is not too late going to "Resources".

too late only for the poll but thank you

[Lencho of the Apes]

nuance

ghastly

There was a lot of stuff happening in that outside of the dance performance that looked like it was intended to represent something, and at a first glance it was notagoodlook, things like the enormous pair of prop legs or that choreography that seemed to suggest that Mr. Blackened Fredface could 'handle' forty women at once. Fetishizing black otherness and making rules about how it was to be understood?

[rischka]

wow all that? now i'm afraid to watch it ever again lol

[Lencho of the Apes]

3 fin 20.JPG (26.58 KiB) Viewed 1614 times

[Lencho of the Apes]

I've spent 2.5 hours wrestling with my laptop just to get to the place where I can start tallying, so I don't think I'm gonna have this finished anytime tonight. Within 24 hours is as much as I can promise.

[Lencho of the Apes]

1
Modern Times
My Man Godfrey

3
Mr. Thank You

4
Dodsworth - Wyler

5
The Story Of A Cheat

6
Fury - Lang
The Only Son
Sabotage - Hitchcock

9
Swing Time

10
By The Bluest Of Seas
Ceiling Zero - Hawks
The Crime Of Monsieur Lange
A Day In The Country
Ferryman Maria (Frank Wisbar)
Osaka Elegy
the prisoner of shark island (ford)
Sisters Of The Gion
Vamonos Con Pancho Villa - de Fuentes

19
Mr Deeds Goes To Town

20
Cesar
Craig's Wife (Dorothy Arzner)
Dracula's Daughter
Redes - Fred Zinnemann, E. Gomez Muriel

25
La belle équipe (They Were Five)
Devil Doll - Browning
Rose Hobart
Secret Agent- Hitchcock

29
Mayerling
Things To Come

31
desire - borzage
Follow The Fleet -
Libeled Lady
I Love To Singa
The Lower Depths
das mädchen irene / the girl irene
Petrified Forest
Show Boat (James Whale)

39 - 47
Alla En El Rancho Grande -
The CooCoo Nut Grove (Friz Freleng)
The Final Chord (Sirk)
La Fontaine d'Aréthuse (Dimitri Kirsanoff)
Intermezzo (Gustaf Molander)
Jánošík (Martin Frič)
Lloyds of London (King)
May / Máj (E.F. Burian, Čeněk Zahradníček)
the new road - gosho

[Angel]

the new road - gosho*

here's an adorable shot of tanaka and takamine (who was just 12)

Late to the party, but I must say that it is very good with a fine script by Kogo Noda. Besides Tanaka and Takamine, male cast is also outstanding: Ken Uehara (Mr. Thank You that same year), Shuji Sano and Shin Saburi. Interestingly enough it has quite a few points of contact with Shimazu's Family Meeting.

[MrCarmady]

ICM list, forgot about this one