MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT (1933)

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It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
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Monday, March 23, 2015

LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT (1933)

Pre-Code meller has Barbara Stanwyck playing gun moll to Lyle Talbot & his gang of bank robbers. She plays up to the armed guard while the boys take their positions. The unlikely ruse gets her quickly arrested, but just as quickly released when public crusader (and childhood pal) Preston Foster defends her. Grateful to the guy, she fesses up . . . and goes to jail for her honesty. Not a bad first act. But the script stops making any sense after this, with a wayward secret letter; a botched jail break by her former gang; a duplicate prison passkey; and a panicked gun shot to resolve all outstanding issues. There’s some nice glistening cinematography from John Seitz, making a rare visit to the Warners lot, but nobody bothered to see if the pieces would fit together.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: The unlikely co-directors, low-budget specialist Howard Bretherton and A-lister William Keighley (well, B+ guy), were just off THE MATCH KING/’32 (Keighley’s debut) a superb fact-inspired con man’s tale with Warren William in probably his best role and a great look from talented, little known lenser Robert Kurrle who died young.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Monday, March 23, 2015

LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT (1933)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE