NFR Project: 'Destry Rides Again' (1939)

 

NFR Project: ‘Destry Rides Again’

Dir: George Marshall

Scr: Henry Myers, Gertrude Purcell

Pho: Hal Mohr

Ed: Miton Carruth

Premiere: Dec. 29, 1939

95 min.

Another curious selection by the National Film Registry. A pleasant film, but there is little that is remarkable about it.

The film is a Western, a comedy, and a musical all wrapped into one. It concerns the Old West town of Bottleneck, in which there is little enforcement of the laws, leading to chaos controlled only by the corrupt actions of saloon owner Kent (Brian Donlevy) and the tobacco-chewing mayor Slade (Samuel S. Hinds). When the town’s sheriff is murdered for trying to interfere with some criminal behavior, the town drunk Wash (Charles Winninger) is cynically chosen by the bad guys to serve as his replacement.

However, Wash takes his new job seriously, stops drinking, and hires the son of a famous lawman, Tom Destry Jr. (Jimmy Stewart) to serve as deputy. Destry shows up in town, wearing no guns and promoting the peaceful solution of the town’s problems. He is immediately mocked and despised by the citizenry. However, the bad guys underestimate him. First he proves to be a crack shot, then he uncovers the mystery of the previous sheriff’s murder.

He also wins the affections of Frenchy, the dance-hall girl (Marlene Dietrich) who is Kent’s companion and fellow crook. Destry apprehends one of Kent’s gang, but a gang of badmen release the prisoner from the jail, shooting Wash fatally in the process. An incensed Destry straps on his guns and rallies the whole town to attack Kent’s saloon and overthrow his reign of terror.

The film was a departure for Dietrich, who had appeared in a lavish series of films, most directed by Josef von Sternberg, but was now not deemed to be star material. She took a pay cut to play Frenchy, which she pulls off with grace and panache, singing several musical numbers along the way (this character was parodied by Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles). She proves to be as adept doing comedy as she does the drama of the film.

This is Jimmy Stewart’s first Western, remarkably; the iconic, brooding Westerns he made with Anthony Mann were more than a decade away.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Early Abstractions.

NFR Project: 'Cologne: From the Diary of Ray and Esther' (1939)

 

NFR Project: ‘Cologne: From the Diary of Ray and Esther’

Dir: Esther and Ray Dowidat

Scr: Esther and Ray Dowidat

Pho: Esther and Ray Dowidat

Ed: Esther and Ray Dowidat

Premiere: 1939

15:30 

Home movies are exactly that – records of family life, a way of preserving the memory of loved ones. In this case, the home movie becomes an ambitious documentary that gives us the portrait of a small town in America in the 1930s.

First, do read Scott Simmon’s excellent essay on the film, which you can click on here. He makes the point that the filmmakers, married couple Esther and Dr. Ray Dowidat, were possessed of a very professional spirit. Their film covers the time period from July to September, 1939, and profiles the tiny town of Cologne, Minnesota, pop. 350, located southwest of Minneapolis.

The film starts with a literal overview of the town – a panoramic taking-in of the town from its highest points. It discusses the nature of the inhabitants – mostly of German and Dutch descent – and provides a pocket history of the town, once an important rail junction but now a sleepy backwater. We see various citizens doing their jobs (fortunately, Dowdidat had access to a bright spotlight, and used it to record interior scenes fairly clearly). We go to the local saloon.

The film moves briskly along, punctuated by written passages from the Dowidats’ “diary” entries, which serve as a guide and as a framing device. The end result is a well-crafted film that belies its origins as a hobby, and rises to the level of homespun art.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Destry Rides Again.

NFR Project: 'The City' (1939)

 

NFR Project: ‘The City’

Dir: Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke

Scr: Pare Lorentz, Henwar Rodakiewicz, Lewis Mumford

Pho: Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke

Ed: Theodore Lawrence

Premiere: 1939

43:43

This documentary is one that advocates for a new kind of living space – the suburbs.

This film was produced under the auspices of a coalition of urban planners. It seeks to outline the nature of American city structures, decries the negative aspects of urban life, and posits “planned communities” to take their place. It was firt shown at the New York World’s Fair in 1939.

The movie is simply one of visuals married to a voiceover narration. In the first third of the film, we are taken on a survey of the typical American small town, adjacent to the country’s rural roots. Then we move into an indictment of the big city, decrying its negative influence on its inhabitants. Then we are whisked away to admire the virtues of the suburbs – an integration of nature and the man-made landscape, single-family homes with lawns, all inhabited by white people. It’s a vision that would come to fruition after World War II, when Levittown and its descendants began to cover the landscape.

The film is impressively matched up with an Aaron Copland score (his first for film), and sonorous narration by Morris Carnovsky. The argument for a reconstruction of American living space is somewhat persuasive, but then this film is on a mission of advocacy, and the images and words are in the service of that vision. The suburbs, it turns out, came with their own drawbacks, economic and environmental. However, at the time this film was made, there was little thought given to a different way of life than the crowded, congested stresses of urban living.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Cologne: From the Diary of Ray and Esther.