Best Picture Marathon: Broadway Melody (1929)

Broadway Melody  PG13  1 hour, 40 minutes 
Director: Harry Beaumont
Starring: Bessie Love, Anita Page, Charles King

Like Wings, Broadway Melody would seem a lot less impressive out of the context of when it was made and what technological advances they were showing off.

Broadway Melody opens with a cacophonous scene in a music shop/studio where many people are rehearsing/practicing many different types of songs right on top of each other. It was clearly something that couldn't have existed just a few years before.

I must admit that most of our familiarity with 1920s musicals comes from the musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). While watching Broadway Melody, Singing in the Rain came to mind many times, and not just because of the era. A little Googling helped me discover that Singin' in the Rain was written to bring together a bunch of the music of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote the music for Broadway Melody. (Singin' in the Rain was produced by Arthur Freed.)

So final consensus here was that this is mostly interesting as a piece of history. The parody Dogway Melody (found in the special features on the DVD from our library) was more entertaining.

Best Picture Marathon: Wings (1927)

As a family, we have long been interested in movies of (almost) all sorts and are a bit geeky about things like the Academy Awards. We've been talking for quite awhile about trying to watch the Academy Award Best Pictures in order and finally watched our first one last night. What really helped with getting this marathon started is that our local library has almost every Best Picture winner in their DVD collection.

Wings  PG13  2 hours, 24 minutes  
Director: William A. Wellman

Starring: Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen and Gary Cooper

Wings is the epic story of two young men, Jack and David, who are in love with the same woman, Sylvia, and Mary, who is in love with Jack. Jack and David head off to war as bitter rivals, but end up becoming the best of friends as fighter pilots on the front lines in the last days of World War I.

Most of our family are not enthusiastic about silent films. The overall sentiment was that this was a bit overly long and dated, even though there were some great laugh-out-loud moments.

Bernie commented that Wings was the least silent film she's ever watched, because the restored version that we rented on Amazon had constant music plus lots of added sound effects.

Ria's impression was that movie-making of the time was still in transition from books - because the captions were so lengthy and descriptive.


It's fair to watch Wings for its historical value, but you can also pick up some context by watching this documentary (we haven't finished watching it yet). A couple of interesting tidbits we learned from it were that the director himself was a World War I fighter pilot and the movie was the famous Edith Head's first as lead costumer (Edith Head was the inspiration behind Edna "E" Mode from The Incredibles). Look for the other 3 parts of the documentary on Youtube...

Favorite Black and White Movies

Note: Some titles may not be appropriate for family viewing.


Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Michael Curtiz (director)

The Artist (2011) Jean Dujardin

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman

Boys Town (1938) Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney

Bringing Up Baby (1938) Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant

Captains Courageous (1937) Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore

Casablanca (1942) Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Michael Curtiz (director)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan

Come to the Stable (1949) Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Elsa Lanchester

Edison the Man (1940) Spencer Tracy

High Noon (1952) Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly

Holiday (1938) Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant

Holiday Affair (1949) Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh

I Confess (1953) Montgomery Clift, Ann Baxter, Alfred Hitchcock (director)

 Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurosawa, director

I Remember Mama (1948) Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes

It Happened One Night (1934) Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Frank Capra (director)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Frank Capra (director)

Lilies of the Field (1963) Sidney Poitier

The Major and the Minor (1942) Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Billy Wilder (director)

Meet John Doe (1941) Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Capra (director)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Frank Capra (director)

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara

The Miracle Worker (1962) Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke

Monkey Business (1931) The Marx Brothers

The More the Merrier (1943) Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, George Stevens (director)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, Frank Capra (director)

On the Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Elia Kazan (director)

Penny Serenade (1941) Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, George Stevens (director)

The Philadelphia Story (1940) Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart

 The Pride of the Yankees (1942) Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth

Roman Holiday (1953) Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, William Wyler (director)

Sabrina (1954) Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Billy Wilder (director)

Safety Last (1923) Harold Lloyd (silent) (click here to watch on YouTube)
I should note, after a recent re-watch, that there is a scene involving an ugly stereotyping that should be discussed with your children, and in fact is a good opportunity to do so. Crazy to think that some people once saw such things as funny.

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon

Sergeant York (1941) Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan

The Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa, director

Song of Bernadette (1943) Jennifer Jones

The Stratton Story (1949) Jimmy Stewart, June Allyson

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Gregory Peck

Twelve Angry Men (1957) Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) James Cagney, Michael Curtiz (director)

You Can't Take it With You (1938) Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Frank Capra (dir)

Young Tom Edison (1940) Mickey Rooney

Please share your favorites in the comments. I'm sure I'm forgetting some and am always interested in discovering more oldies-but-goodies. There are also lots that I've seen, but too far in the past to include until I get a chance to watch them again, such as Modern Times, Mutiny on the Bounty and Harvey.

This page is dedicated to my dear friend Katrina Louise Underwood, who died of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) in 2012. I credit her with introducing me to the joys of old movies. (picture of us circa 1986)

Please support ALS Research through the John Paul II Medical Research Institute.