[8] Behold the glory of Barbara Stanwyck. One of classic Hollywood’s sassiest broads makes a big splash in this early talkie that’s leagues ahead of other early 30s flicks in terms of story, craftsmanship, and performance. Babs plays a “party girl” (we know them as escorts now) who serendipitously winds up hitching a ride in the middle of the night with a fuddy-duddy artist. Both …
[6] Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn star in a Frank Capra movie about the political and personal tolls of running for president of the United States. Van Johnson and Margaret Hamilton are fun in supporting roles. Angela Lansbury is nice as the cold, calculating antagonist — her first scene is one of the movie’s best.
[9] Somewhere along the way, Hollywood forgot how to make good romantic comedies. Because there are plenty of them to be found in the ’30s and ’40s, with Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night being chief among them. Claudette Colbert plays a rich gal running away from what is essentially an arranged marriage. After she bumps into a reporter played by Clark Gable on a …
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