Monday, August 31, 2020 at 1:54PM Are you ready for the seventh episode in this super-sized Supporting Actress Smackdown season? Up next in 15 days is 1938. [UPDATE 09/16 - THE SMACKDOWN IS NOW PUBLISHED] That was only the third year of the Supporting categories at the Oscars but you can already see some tropes forming. Here's where you can watch the nominated performances/films.
Let's meet the panelists
PLEASE WELCOME...
Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 11:00AM "The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.
Eleven films were nominated for Best Production Design in 1938. And a number of them would be a great subject for a column, from lavish period pieces set in France (Marie Antoinette and If I Were King) to screwball comedies about class (Holiday and Merrily We Live). And four musicals.
Yet it’s hard to look past The Adventures of Robin Hood, which won. Warner Bros' first big budget Technicolor feature drops Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland into a lavish, colorful fantasy of Medieval England. Happily, it’s worth quite a bit more than its price tag. Its primary virtue is playfulness...
Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 3:00PM We'll be celebrating 1938 in between regular programming for the next few weeks as we approach the next Supporting Actress Smackdown (September 14th). But before you do your own '38 movie explorations, hit the Smackdown titles first so you can vote on the big event! They are:
• The Great Waltz - just $1.99 to rent
This nutso musical bio received 3 Oscar noms, winning for cinematography
• Jezebel - just $1.99 to rent
This problematic Southern Belle drama is the one that lifted Bette Davis from exciting new talent to superstar (and won her her second Oscar). 5 Oscar noms, winning both Actress categories
• Merrily We Live - free (with ads) on Tubi
Screwball comedy about a wealthy family taking in hobos. 5 Oscar noms
• Of Human Hearts - $2.99 to rent
Drama about a preacher's family. Supporting Actress was the only nomination
• You Can't Take It With You - $3.99 to rent
Frank Capra comedy. 7 Oscar nominations, winning Picture / Director
And you know what to do after you've screened them VOTE before the morning of Sunday, September 13th.
As you undoubtedly know if you're reading TFE, streaming services aren't particularly kind to films that are more than 20 years old. What's available is utterly random and it disappears suddenly and without warning -- for instance Hulu just decimated their once pretty ok "classics" section (which included our very favourite 1938 film, Bringing Up Baby) between when we began drafting this post a month or so ago and now. Now that section includes only 19 films, half of which are now from the 1980s or later. (They did this just when we had gotten used to telling people that they are way better than Netflix for anything pre 2000s and turned us into liars. AAARRRRRGH.) Anyway, we've done the legwork for you and prepared a list of titles that are currently streaming for free (provided you have certain subscriptions of course) from this particular cinematic year. Let us know in the comments which you're most interested in discussing. This will come as a shocker but we're actually way ahead of the curve this month and have already finished screening all 5 Smackdown titles and most of the 10 Best Picture nominees, too... WUT?
TEN 1938 MOVIES THAT ARE FREE TO STREAM
Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at 9:16PM • Vulture why Charlize Theron is so pleasurable to watch in action films
• My New Plaid Pants Luca Guadagnino signing on to deliver a feature adaptation of Scotty Bower's "Full Service" which has already inspired a feature doc and that gas station as whorehouse in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood
• Vanity Fair What Olivia de Havilland remembered about the 1939 Oscars
After the jump, Ramy's nominations, Michael Fassbender's return, Hugh Jackman's butt, Scarface memories, X-Men's 20th, and more...
Friday, July 24, 2020 at 4:30PM Who is your favourite from each year in the 1930s? My current votes go like so though there are always more films to see so one must always reserve the right to change one's mind.
