The Milk River Madman has selected Best 1930s Movies as this week’s theme for Movie Clip Wednesday.
At first, my heart sighed because I didn’t think there would be many to choose from but, oh, how wrong I was – as you’ll see from the assembled footage in my clip.
I discover that I grew up watching television that consisted almost entirely on films from the 1930s and their leading men and women would shape the images to which I would aspire both personally and in the man with whom I would eventually fall in love.
Perhaps I am just a conglomeration of Judy Garland’s innocent Dorothy and that determined vamp in the making, Scarlett O’Hara – heroines who look sweet on the outside but have a blade of steel running through their middle, embedded in the foundation of their overriding love for home.
However, you can bet your life that Ruf has in spades that quality which epitomised the characters so famously portrayed by Errol Flynn and and Clark Gable. An elusive manliness, so testosterone fuelled that you can almost touch it and which draws females like moths to a flame where they crash and burn on the unyielding exterior. And yet, for the woman they adore, taming that soft heart and nurturing the soul within is a piece of cake.
With the knowledge that there would be too much chance of a blog jinx if I went with Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Robin Hood or Captain Blood, I decided to go for something completely different.
The Marx Brothers could actually be quite irritating in big doses but there are some absolute gems of verbiage in Duck Soup, along with this silent classic.
It is funny how things get imprinted on us without even realizing it till we take time to reflect….
Happy birthday to your hunk of testosterone too!
Rhett Butler hugely influenced the qualities I eventually grew up to look for in a man. As for the Marx Brothers, I was never much of a fan. To me, Buster Keaton was the great comedic genius of the era. Happy MCW and enjoy!
I love this bit. I remember watching Lucille Ball do this with Harpo on one of her specials. Nice to see the original. Happy MCW.
Great pick! I loved the Marx Brothers and spent time as a kid watching them on TV. Oddly, I think a lot of it was when I lived in England. The Marx Brothers were an early Monty Python?
Happy MCW!
Boxer recently posted..Movie Clip Wednesday – Favorite Movie from the1930s
Wasn’t exposed to very much Marx Brothers during my formative years. My favourites from that era would be any of the Will Hay comedies, especially (what else?) ‘Oh, Mr Porter’
Fat Controller recently posted..Pink Lady
I can’t believe I didn’t think of the Marx Brothers. This was a great bit too. And Errol Flynn is the epitome of the gay 30s when that meant something completely different.
Happy MCW!
Thanks, Princess. I didn’t get to spend it with him but I did send him the tassel video in lieu ;P
Nope, Moi, Neither Buster nor Charlie did it for me really…
MRM, Harpo could be a bit irritating at times – well they all could tbh – but this was a comedy gem :)
Boxer, I think you’re right. I bet MP were influenced by the Marx Bros :)
FC, Im not sure I’ve seen any Will Hay or this Mr Porter of whom you speak ;P
Buzz, Errol had just the right amount of camp to make his raging testosterone bearable :)