Monday, August 16, 2010

Movie Project: 1929 & 1930

I forgot to say in my first movie post that some of my reviews will contain spoilers. I will mark said reviews with a spoiler warning.

1929: The Broadway Melody
**spoiler**
Two sisters with a popular song-and-dance act in the West head to the Big Apple to make it big, with help from the elder sister's fiancee. They get into an act, but the younger sister's star shines brighter. At the same time, she begins to fall in love with her sister's fiancee. After much screaming and yelling, the elder sister eventually realizes that her sister and fiancee are in love and lets her fiancee go in order to make her sister happy. While they get married, she goes off on a traveling act with a woman she hates. The End.

I give this movie 2.5 out of 5 stars. The arguments between the sisters over the younger one's pursuit of an unwise romance (which she is pursuing in an attempt to forget her sister's fiancee) seemed to make up the bulk of the movie and they were interminable. And the overall message left this modern woman a little cold: young, beautiful woman with talent leaves her career behind for a man while the older, less pretty (not in my opinion; I thought she was prettier) and less talented one is left man-less and unhappy in her career. Yuck.

However, I was touched by the older sister's sacrifice and I loved the song and dance routines.

Stars: Bessie Love, Anita Page, and Charles King

1930: All Quiet on the Western Front
Honestly, it's probably been a good 15 years since I saw this movie. It is, of course, an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic novel of World War I - one of my favorite books of all time. I remember not like it as much as the book, although I by no means think of it as a bad movie. In all honesty, I would do well to both read the book and watch the movie again, but I have time for neither.

One thing I do remember from this movie is the beautiful, gripping ending. 3 out of 5 stars.

Stars: Lew Ayres, John Wray, and Louis Wolheim

2 comments:

Patricia said...

I've never heard of the 1929 movie. I remember my 8th grade social studies teacher going on and on about "All Quiet on the Western Front" both the book and the movie. I tried to read the book, once, but the book laziness got to me and I never finished. I would imagine, though that this isn't too bloody of a war movie?.

balyien said...

Nah, they weren't too big on the blood and guts back in the 30s. I recall this movie being pretty tame.