Today’s featured player is one of the men (and I admit I am more biased towards actresses) who made me fall in love with not only Old Hollywood but cinema in general, I think. And celebrating my becoming newly unemployed, I watched six films!
Speed (1936)
Not the most fascinating story. There is no Keanu, no Sandy, not even a bus. What IS there is a whole lot of cars. Jimmy’s job is to test them, but in his spare time he works to create a whole new engine. He doesn’t want any of the engineers helping him, especially not his arch-nemesis, Weldon Heyburn. He’s even more done with him when a publicist played by Wendy Barrie shows up at the factory and they both fall for her.
This is essentially a love triangle story with cars in the background. Not necessarily something for me. I think that a big problem is the miscasting of… Jimmy, I guess. Barrie and Heyburn seem pretty compatible and have some chemistry. But when Barrie is with Jimmy, she seems more like an older sister who has enough patience to tolerate her kid brother’s antics.
Speed is not a film that’s going to stay with me for a long time but it IS Jimmy’s first starring role so I guess it was worth seeing for the historical value.
Seventh Heaven (1937)
A remake. Paris, 1914. Jimmy plays a sewer worker. Simone Simon plays a young girl employed by her sister in her… um… dance hall but she refuses to be kind to old, creepy men. At one point she’s about to be arrested but Jimmy sees that and convinces the cop she is his wife. They pretend to be married and in love but in time there’s less and less pretending.
Also, Jimmy is *gasp* an atheist, something that excites a local priest who feels Jimmy might find God in the end – you can take a wild guess whether he does or no (yeah, I’m not trying to be judgmental but this plot was not my favourite).
Stewart is wonderful in the film, absolutely adorable. Simone Simon is good too but I can’t help but think about the absolutely incredible Janet Gaynor who played the role before. No one could even come close to her.
Overall, I prefer the original but James was fantastic.
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Oh, how wonderful it is that despite not having a Marlene Dietrich day this Summer Under the Stars I got to see her twice already! And what a treat she was this time: watching her in the western setting I couldn’t help but think that she was made for saloons.
Marlene plays a shady character dating another shady character, and together they kill the sheriff and appoint a local drunk the new sheriff so that they can get control over the town. But, the drunk finds Jesus and sobriety and also asks Jimmy to come by and help him whip the town into shape. Shenanigans ensue.
I’m sorry but I have to say this – James Stewart was very hot in this film.
Destry was really fun to watch and it was mostly, again, because of Marlene who got to not only look fabulous but also do her stage entertainer bit quite a bit.
No Time for Comedy (1940)
Jimmy as a playwright. Rosalind Russell (another one of my absolute faves) as an actress. He writes a hit play (a comedy) in which she stars. Then he continues to write comedies for her and they get married and everything is going lovely until he meets a girl who thinks comedies are a waste of his talent.
I bet James Stewart had someone tell him comedies were a waste of his time once or twice as well (they were wrong, even if No Time for Comedy is not the greatest film)..
No Time for Comedy has a cute premise and, obviously, charming leads but it is, sadly, kind of boring and the conflict does not feel organic or necessary at all.
Magic Town (1947)
James Stewart plays a man doing surveys across America. One day he discovers that one single town’s survey answers match the American (as in, of the whole country) answers perfectly. But there is a woman in the town who wants to enlarge it by building a civic center outside city limits. Jimmy doesn’t want to lose his perfect town so he needs to stop her.
Magic Town is cute – that’s it. It’s a cute movie about a cute town. Jimmy is cute in his role. I find the premise unusual enough for it to stay interesting despite being, after all, „just” a romantic comedy.
Winchester ’73 (1950)
Now for a film that I definitely cannot name „just a western”. Winchester ’73 shows the Wild West for what it really was – a wild west. This is a brutal look at a town where everyone is just trying to survive and they all do it the one way they find effective – guns.
While I can certainly have fun watching a western (despite the ever-present racist depictions of Native Americans – I mean ROCK HUDSON plays one here), I couldn’t help but get a little reflective watching Winchester ’73. The title alone is a reference to a rifle, apparently the most amazing gun, the object of desire of the characters. They surely love this gun and will do a lot to get it. And isn’t it what so many people in America are doing today? Not letting go of the gun? And doesn’t the news start to resemble westerns a bit? It’s terrifying.
I’ve noticed that I spent today watching either Jimmy’s romantic comedies or westerns, two genres he really was making a lot. But he’s played so many roles I feel like I could watch a lot more (and I watched SIX films today!). Maybe he’ll get his Summer Under the Stars day again next year.
Let me end today with something completely different. I adore James Stewart, like I said, he was one of the first Old Hollywood stars I fell in love with. BUT. Last night I watched something on TV: Cactus Flower, from 1969. Starring Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, and Ingrid freaking Bergman. And I am crazy about Cactus Flower. Not only is it hilarious, the cast is stellar (Goldie got an Oscar) but also the A E S T H E T I C S! I watched it as part of the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Tarantino list of films to check out (OUaTiH comes out on August 16th where I live and I want to watch them all before, even if I’m almost losing my mind from watching so much) and I am so happy that I checked it out. What a treat! Sorry Jimmy I am gushing about other actors’ work on your day but Cactus Flower is worth it.
Swingin' at the Seance 