Not too damn much, that's what!
Whenever we prep for a Smackdown The Film Experience becomes newly alarmed at how scarce the availability of 20th century film titles actually is online. Streaming culture has somehow convinced people that everything you might ever want to see is easier to access than it's ever been. Alas, the further back in time you go, the less there is for your eyeballs as we move away from analog. Of course streaming is more convenient so we hope Hollywood will magically decide to make all their vaults available. We can dream!
Laura dear, I cannot stand these morons any longer. If you don't come with me this instant, I shall run amok.
But if you want to steep yourself in 1944 beyond the 5 films featured in the next Smackdown, here's what you can stream should you have any of these memberships...
Filmstruck/Criterion
Laura
Otto Preminger's mystery noir has a cast that's absolutely to die for: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Prince, Judith Anderson. I mean, my god. Five Oscar nominations and a win for Best Cinematography
[Young Sir Larry is quietly taking a knee. He's about to monologue, watch out!]
Henry V
Speaking of Oscars... you could say this was Laurence Olivier's warm-up for his Hamlet triumph four years later. With the exception of Orson Welles, Hollywood wasn't really used to the Do-It-Yourself Director/Actor/Star/Producer titans. They were so impressed they gave Sir Laurence an Honorary Oscar for doing so much on one movie and also gave the movie four nominations. 55 years later, Kenneth Branagh repeated Laurence Olivier's trick directing himself in another adaptation of this play and walking away with two Oscar nominations for his trouble. I personally prefer the Branagh version by a lot but Sir Larry wins the Hamlet (previously discussed) wars, doesn't he?
Looks like this isn't the first time this place has seen a battle.
A Canterbury Tale
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were such brilliant color filmmakers (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus) that sometimes it's hard to imagine that they even existed in black and white. And yet, apparently they did. Has anyone seen this one? This scene I randomly landed on to feels like an join the army commercial, like so many films of the time.
Go and pray for us sinners
Ivan the Terrible Pt 1
That's quite a lewk there, Ivan. (Sergei Eisenstein didn't make Pt 2 for over a decade afterwards!) Lately when Sergei Eisenstein comes up I keep thinking about Peter Greenaway's Eisenstein in Guatanamo. Have you seen that?
Also on Film Struck / Criterion:
Army (Keisuke Kinoshita)
Champagne Charlie (Alberto Cavalcante)
The Children Are Watching Us (Vittorio de Sica)
Le ciel est a vous (Jean Gremilton)
The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise)
Jubilation Street (Keisuke Kinoshita)
The Most Beautiful (Akira Kurosawa)
This Happy Breed (David Lean)
Torment (Alf Sjoberg)
Amazon Prime
- C'mon Mildred, it isn't going to be that bad. We're lucky.
- Maybe you think so. I don't!
The Hairy Ape
A Eugene O'Neill adaptation. This is during Susan Hayward's young pre-superstardom 'beautiful manipulative young bitch' phase which we discussed during her Centennial.
Gee, Roy, I'm sorry I bopped you!
The Cowboy and the Senorita
I don't think I have ever seen a Roy Rogers movie. Have you?
Ariel Heath: Oh it's a play, Would you like me to read it to you? 'But there is a tomorrow, and the dawn will come, pause, bringing with it the blue eyed goddess of fortune, double pause. Oh at last opportunity was here.'
Do you think I give it the proper interpretation?Miss Francis Langford: It's very expressive.
Career Girl
Hee! She reads the "pause" like it were dialogue. Miss Frances Langford, the unimpressed woman on the bed, is the star of this picture but I have to admit I've never heard of either actress before this moment. Langford was a radio star at the time and co-starred in minor musicals like this one.
Also on Prime:
Gangster of the Frontier
Leave it to the Irish
Swing Hostess
Timber Queen
When the Lights Go Out Again
....and various military training films and documentaries
Hulu
no titles from 1944
Netflix
They're climbing higher now, 300 feet a minute, the strain on the plane and men is mounting.
The Memphis Belle
William Wyler's documentary about the last bombing mission of a B17, the "Memphis Belle". The footage is pretty great and identifying each crew member in this scene (along with their backgrounds and jobs before the war) makes it so immediate.
People of the world have risen in one great mass, to bring to justice the ringleaders responsible for these crimes. In America's army, in every branch fo the service: artillery, tank, auto, master engineer...
The Negro Soldier
This documentary was made to highlight African American contributions to World War II and to promote enlisting in the army.
Two days later the Germans invaded unoccupied France...
Tunisian Victory
Another war doc, this one by Frank Capra, Hugh Stewart, and John Huston.
All these docs are streaming now as augmentary viewing for Netflix's adaptation of Mark Harris's book "Five Came Back" about Hollywood directors during World War II.