comment #1

62Lincoln says ...

Perhaps the last thing you would call most moviegoers back then would be adults.

comment #2

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

of course. Anyone who claimed that (American) people back then had better taste in films, is an idiot.

but i still think Indians today have really bad taste in Bollywood films. Indian cinema used to actually make good films back then.

comment #3

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

I just looked at the poster. OH MY GOD!!!! Sonja Henie, the ice skater who couldn't act and made awful films revolving ice skating and romance.

Need I say anything more?!?!

comment #4

Breedlove says ...

I was thinking the other day about how good acting is in movies these days and how it seems to have just gotten better and better over time. Obviously there was a big leap in the 50s with the Method and everything, and then all those great actors who came up in the 70s. But I really love the, I don't know if you'd call it the Altman influence, the improvisational feel a lot of movies have today. I just think it can work really well and has really brought film acting to yet another level. If I ever directed a film I think I'd have the actors improvise a lot. No disrespect to screenwriters intended. It can just be so effective. And I think it's probably helped comedy as much as it has drama.

comment #5

Ray says ...

Sure, it's easy to look back in wonderment at "entertainment" like Shirley Temple movies and exclaim, "What the hell were they thinking???" But we need to remember that Temple's period of dominance was just a couple of decades after the invention of the moviegoing experience. Thirty years prior audiences would freak out at a movie of a train coming directly at them. Synched sound had only been around for ten years.

It's just hard to feel all superior when, in this enlightened age, obviously phony bullshit like Miley Cyrus fills stadiums with families. Recently, hundreds of millions of dollars have been made on a guy farting in a fat suit (NORBIT) and a guy surviving a nuclear blast in a refrigerator while fighting bad guys with the assistance of psychic greaser monkeys (INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL).

In other words, not much really separates us from them except a less stylish dress code and a touch more cynicism.

comment #6

Rich S. says ...

Of course, back then movies made a lot more money, relatively speaking, and ate up a bigger percentage of the U.S. entertainment dollar.

A lot of that has now shifted to television. And before we get all high and mighty, we might want to review the choices we have on network television.

The biggest stars from '36 to '41 were Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney, song and dance kids. The #1 television show in America? American Idol. And I gotta tell you, Mickey Rooney has a hell of a lot more talent than Clay Aiken or Justin Guarini.

Toss in Deal or No Deal, the Bachelor, etc. and I'd say it's pretty much a wash.

comment #7

George Prager says ...

The top box office films during those years were always Disney films by a very huge margin, except for the year that GONE WITH THE WIND took the prize. Anyone who hasn't seen GWTW yet should be banned from posting on HE.

comment #8

clancy says ...

Let's also not forget that this was the Nazi era - in 1941 we were full out at war - escapism was key.

Now, look at the top actors in the seventies - Hoffman - Newman-Redord - Dunaway - Fonda- Nicholson- De Niro - and tell me that they don't blow away the stars of today.

comment #9

BurmaShave says ...

Wallace Beery is something I've never understood.

comment #10

Rich S. says ...

Oh, and the three biggest box office hits of 2008 were based on 1) A comic book, 2) Another comic book, and 3) 30s adventure movie serials. Other big hits included a musical based on ABBA, talking Mexican dogs and a martial arts panda.

Hayseed nation, indeed.

comment #11

Gordie Lachance says ...

1936 was the first full year after the production code went into effect. The Studios were in a stone-cold panic with the government and Catholic Church watching over their shoulders. Can't blame them for playing it safe and pumping out crap to appease the rubes, though. It is a business.

Of course the Little Rascals shorts (pre code), while not 'sophisticated', are still funnier than anything that's been done in this country in 30 years.

comment #12

nemo says ...

"Now people are going to say to you, Wallace Beery, wrestling, it's a B picture. You tell them: BULLSHIT! We do NOT make B pictures here at Capitol. Let's put a stop to that rumour RIGHT now!"

comment #13

Rich S. says ...

Gordie, I snagged that complete Little Rascals DVD set the first day it came out in October. I showed it to my hipper-than-thou teenage nieces and nephews over Christmas. That "oooo-WOW" sound the cake makes in Birthday Blues had them on the floor.

comment #14

nemo says ...

It's not as if Betty Grable at the number 1 spot in 43 or Bing Crosby in 44 and 45 were huge improvements. At least they appealed to audiences past puberty, and at least Crosby as a singer influenced greater artists such as Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

But look how great a lot of the actors were in the number 2 through 10 positions. Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford (wasn't she supposed to be box office poison?) Bette Davis (ditto?).

And there's a number of lighter weight, but still excellent actors in there who appeal to adult sensibilities, such as William Powell, Myrna Loy, Greer Garson, and Tyrone Power.

I am amazed that Cary Grant only made the top 10 once during those years, a very low number 9 position in 44.

Speaking of box office poison, I notice Katherine Hepburn never cracked the top 10 during that decade, even though she made a lot of terrific films in that era.

comment #15

nemo says ...

I also just noticed Claudette Colbert, Errol Flynn, and Rogers and Astaire in there. I'd be happy to watch a TCM movie with any of those actors any day of the week.

comment #16

dangovich says ...

"The important thing is we all have that Barton Fink feeling, but since you're Barton Fink I'm assuming you have it in spades."

comment #17

Edward says ...

I bet someone could write an interesting academic paper on the differences between the comedy in Hollywood past vs. comedy today. I'll put up The Rascals and Marx Brothers; films like "His Girl Friday," and Bugs Bunny against anything today. Plus I've left out the more contemporary comedies of Peter Sellers, Mel Brooks, Monty Python....

comment #18

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

The country is still coming out of the Depression and the entire world is headed towards largest conflict known to man.... what part of that aren't you registering in your surprise, Jeff?

Besides, as Rich S. so wisely pointed out, music appeals broadly.

comment #19

George Prager says ...

That "oooo-WOW" sound is the funniest thing ever. Howard Stern used to use that sound whenever talk turned to oral sex for some reason. My favorite for all the wrong reasons Little Rascals episode is the one when the gang celebrate Darla Hood's effeminate father's birthday. So disturbing, especially when he's whining "MAAA-MAAA." He makes Paul Lynde look like Gary Graham.

comment #20

JChasse says ...

The family and I ripped through the Little Rascals box set over the holidays. Spanky McFarland was the Mozart of cinema.

comment #21

leape says ...

Yea, hayseeds for sure! Now let's get to serious box-office making artists:

1. Harrison Ford (Thank you for raping my childhood!)
2. Either of the 'Twilight' guys (the vamp or the doggy)
3. Jim Carrey (Please, animated only!)
4. Jack Black (on his way to animated only)
5. Chris Rock (well on his way to animated only)

Notice the trend here? The only difference between now and then is that we got more 'toons.

comment #22

Rich S. says ...

TCM showed a documentary not long ago called the "Celluloid Closet" or some such, and Johnny "Happy Birthday Mr. Hood, Happy Birthday to You," Arthur was discussed. I can't remember whether they said he was actually gay, or just a classic example of the stereotype.

comment #23

Ryansi51 says ...

haha is that where howard stern got the ooo WOW! sound from?

makes me laugh every time, always assumed it was crackhead bob or something

comment #24

Rich S. says ...

I think it's hilarious that I used oooo-WOW (which really doesn't do it justice) and everyone knows exactly which sound effect I'm talking about.

comment #25

George Prager says ...

Naturally, YouTube has the "oooee-WOW"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lumqCF2YU1g

Fuck yeah!

comment #26

Rich S. says ...

Also, from the aforementioned "Mozart of Cinema" (it's from earlier in that same short)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehK0WhPsNUw

I want that as a ringtone.

comment #27

nemo says ...

What on earth is Van Johnson of all people doing in the number 2 slot for 1945? He's more baffling than Robert Taylor.

IMDB lists 7 movies for him in 1944-45, and I've only heard of 2 of them: The White Cliffs of Dover and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. I've never heard of either of those being a huge box office hit. It makes me wonder about the rest of the list.

I didn't remember the oooo-WOW sound until I watched the YouTube clip, but as soon as I did, I was transported back to being 7 years old again.

comment #28

Edward says ...

I had totally forgotten that clip and sound effect. Definately brings back memories.

comment #29

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

haha, the Little Rascals!!! Funny how it was originally called 'Our Gang' and then they were forced to change their name because of the sinister association with the term "gang."

only in America.

comment #30

PastePotPete says ...

The great myth of the "Golden Age of Hollywood" is that most or even a large percentage of movies made in the studio system were good. It's just plain not true.

The perception that movies are "worse now" is due to people being aware of pretty much every movie released right now good or bad, whereas the dreck of the 1930s is long, long forgotten. So long forgotten that people pretend it didn't exist at all. Some of the most wretched movies I've ever seen were produced in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

If you just take the 10-15 best movies made in almost any given year, and completely ignore the rest, almost any year can come off as a really good year for movies.

Maybe not 2008, but it was a pretty shoddy year all around it seems.

comment #31

Floyd Thursby says ...

I agree with PastePotPete, but the worst movies of 1980-2008 are much, much worse than the worst of the 30s and 40s.

The general audiences of those decades didn't recognize that screwball comedies, gangster movies, film noirs, and other genre movies were more artistic than the most popular of the popular dreck. Remember that lots of movies seen as classics today--BRINGING UP BABY--were flops at the time.

As noted above, the single appearance of Grant, the epitome of the movie star, is telling.

Meanwhile, look at Wally Beery's credits for this period and explain what he's doing on the 1940 list: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000891

comment #32

JChasse says ...

The one Little Rascals short that really made us laugh was the one where they learned the story of the magic lamp, and they're all rubiing every type of lamp ever created. Spanky's rubbing his, repeating, "I wish I had a monkey, I wish I had a monkey", which morphed into "I wish Cotton (presumably Stymie's brother) was a monkey." Finally, he turns to Cotton and says matter-of-factly, "I wish you were a monkey, Cotton," and Cotton just as matter-of-factly replies, "OK." We kept pausing and going back to Cotton's line delivery over and over again to laugh our asses off.

comment #33

Bob Violence says ...

For three years, from '36 to '38, Shirley Temple was the country's top box-office star, and then Mickey Rooney had the title from '39 to '41.

Spanning two decades!