“He Stayed For Breakfast” (Movie Review-8/31/40)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 8/31/40 | Bosley Crowther

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

TCM has no goodies for this one. I never heard of it before I saw this review but two things prompted me to save it - Loretta Young and this opening:

“Ever since Ernst Lubitsch declared an open season on Communists with ‘Ninotchka,’ the boys in Hollywood have been taking pot shots at the Reds.”

What a concept.

[Crawdad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosley_Crowther

Crowther was a prolific writer of film essays as a critic for The New York Times from 1940 to 1967. Conscious of the power of his reviews, his style was scholarly rather than breezy.[1] Frank Beaver wrote in Bosley Crowther: Social Critic of the Film, 1940-1967 that Crowther opposed displays of patriotism in films and believed that a movie producer “should balance his political attitudes even in the uncertain times of the 1940’s and 1950’s, when the House Un-American Activities Committee had frustrated freethinking in Hollywood and the nation.”[2] Crowther’s review of the wartime drama Mission to Moscow chided the film by saying it should show “less ecstasy,” and said “It is just as ridiculous to pretend that Russia has been a paradise of purity as it is to say the same thing about ourselves.”[2][3]

In the 1950s, Crowther was an opponent of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whose anti-Communist crusade had targeted Hollywood. He fought the blacklisting of alleged Hollywood Communists. He ridiculed the stridently patriotic movies of the era. He opposed censorship of movies, and advocated greater social responsibility in the making of movies. He was critical of movies that sensationalized violence, criticizing Bonnie and Clyde as “a blending of farce with brutal killings,”[1] “as pointless as it is lacking in taste.”[4] Crowther approved of movies with social content, such as Citizen Kane, The Grapes of Wrath, and Gone With the Wind, as well as The Lost Weekend, The Red Shoes and All the King’s Men,[1] but was notably cool about ‘women’s pictures’.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thanks for the info. I haven’t done a search on Crowther before. I think I preferred Frank Nugent’s reviews. This guy does seem a little stuffy. But I suppose we’re stuck with him for the duration if he will still be around for “Bonnie and Clyde.”

[Tainan]

thanks Homer J. I go to a torrent site that specializes in ‘old movies.’ I think I’ll see if they have this one.