My Totally-Subjective Classic Movie Guide, Part 3
Still more of my attempt to introduce you to some Golden Age movies
This post continues a list of Golden Age movies that I’d recommend to someone unfamiliar with old movies. It’s based on movies I personally love, but I’ve also made an effort to include several different genres and some recognized all-time classics (which I also happen to love). They are in no particular order.
“Ninotchka” (1939)
“Oh, Ninotchka, don’t take things so seriously. Nothing’s worth it, really.”
Greta Garbo, perhaps the biggest star of the 1930s, certainly one of the biggest, was not known for comedy. She was known for “Camille” and “Anna Karenina”— the type of pictures often known as “weepies” because of their tragic element.
I’m not really into Garbo’s weepies, except maybe “Grand Hotel,” in which her story is just one of several. But Garbo’s first true comedy is one of my all-time favorites, and she’s terrific in it, displaying razor-sharp comic timing. Yes, her character is supposed to be humorless. But it takes someone with a great sense of humor to play this part as well as Garbo does. She knows exactly how to serve the comedy.
