Showing posts with label Life This Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life This Week. Show all posts
Monday, March 11, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Life This Week: February 26, 1940
Remember when I made Sausage Cobbler? The recipe was from an ad in this issue of Life. There were so many yummy-sounding recipes to try I couldn't stop at just one. Need an easy weekend breakfast? Love cornbread and maple syrup and sausage links? Thought you would. You should definitely try out this recipe.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Life This Week: February 19, 1940
Mae West and W.C. Fields only made one movie together and it was My Little Chickadee, this week's "Movie of the Week" (check out the photos of Mae West's apartment while you're at it), a western penned by Ms. West. Fields wrote some of the dialogue, but the studio gave him equal credit for the script which royally pissed off Mae West. She refused to work with W.C. Fields again.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Life This Week: January 29, 1940 and February 5, 1940
Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Almond White Fudge Frosting is deeeelicious. I just had a bit of a problem getting the fudge icing to spread even though I followed the recipe and tried all the tips (like placing it over hot water). I was pretty disappointed mine didn't end up looking like the magazine photo! Since it tasted so yummy, I've included the recipe. I've made fudge frostings before and haven't had any problems. Maybe the house was too cold?
Monday, January 14, 2013
Life This Week: January 15, 1940
Movie of the Week: Rebecca
I've read the book, watched the movie several times and even seen the two television miniseries and I never get tired of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. While it's not totally the same as the book, Alfred Hitchcock's film version much more closely matches the source material than his versions of Jamaica Inn or The Birds. Plus, the casting is spot on. Laurence Olivier is charming yet tortured Maxim de Winter; Joan Fontaine is his adorable and bewildered second wife; George Sanders is oily and sinister Jack Favell; C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Denny and Nigel Bruce play three examples of English (gentle)manhood and Judith Anderson is menacing and creepy as housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. Just go watch it! You won't be sorry. Rebecca is available on DVD and will be on TCM next Tuesday.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Life This Week: May 1, 1939
In their fourth movie together, Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea star in Union Pacific, this week's "Movie of the Week." Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Union Pacific is the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad. Or more specifically, it's about an Irish "end-of-track" postmistress (Barbara Stanwyck), her gambling fiancé (Robert Preston) and the former Union army captain sent to maintain law and order along the line (Joel McCrea). Naturally, what happens is that postmistress Mollie Monahan and Captain Jeff Butler can't seem to stay away from each other. Probably because Joel McCrea has got to be one of the most adorable men ever.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Life This Week: April 24, 1939
What is particularly interesting in the Life article, though, is the breakdown of Dark Victory's budget. The entire production cost $800,000. The cost of all the film used was $15,000! Davis and Brent had to split $85,000, which comes out to about $1.3 million in 2010 dollars. I guess they were used to sharing the big bucks--Dark Victory was Bette Davis and George Brent's eighth film together.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Life This Week: April 17, 1939
Really, how could you resist? Dodge City is one of those movies that's so charming and likeable that I forget how ridiculous it really is. It may not be the best film of 1939, but it's certainly one of the most fun.
While delivering cattle and a wagon train of settlers to Dodge City, improbably handsome cowboy Wade Hatton (Errol Flynn) stands up to saloon-owner and all-around baddie Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot). The impressed townspeople want Hatton for sheriff. So, Wade and his buddies (Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) stick around to clean up the town. Keep in mind that this is the film that helps establish all those Western-genre clichés.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Life This Week: April 10, 1939
Netflix didn't have Ettore Fieramosca, fascist Italy's anti-French propaganda film, so I had settle for just watching Alexander Nevsky, the other armored flick in "The Italians and Russians Do Films of Armored Knights: Both Use History to Warn Their Enemies." Alexander Nevksy is a famous bit of Russian nationalist, anti-German propaganda. It's the story of a 13th-century Russian prince, famous for his defeat of a Swedish invasion, who must rout another invasion attempt, this time by Teutonic knights. Timely and conveniently anti-German and anti-religion (the Germans and the priests throwing babies into a bonfire was actually kind of funny), this film softened Joseph Stalin to director Sergei Eisenstein.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Life This Week: April 3, 1939
Can you believe it's April already? Doesn't seem possible! I keep thinking that it can't be spring since we never had our blizzards. Among the weeds in my kitchen garden, I found a couple sprigs of parsley. It never got cold enough to kill them off! As unpleasant as winter can be, it seems wrong to skip it entirely.
Anyway, it's Life This Week time. This week's issue has several interesting items:
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Life This Week: March 20, 1939
This week's "Movie of the Week" is Love Affair. As usual, Life gives away the whole thing. However, you are probably very familiar with the plot already--director Leo McCarey remade Love Affair in 1957, renaming it An Affair to Remember. I've seen the Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr version a few times over the years, but this was my first viewing of Love Affair and I think I like it better. At any rate, I was totally glued to the computer (Love Affair is free at Archive.org.) even though I already knew what was going to happen.
Poster from Doctor Macro
Charles Boyer's character is always going around ordering champagne cocktails with pink champagne. I didn't have any of the pink stuff, but here's my recipe for a champagne cocktail:
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Life This Week: March 6, 1939
Stills from Doctor Macro
This week's "Movie of the Week" is actually a film entitled Café Society, which I can't locate anywhere. No problem--there are several other movies mentioned in this issue. However, the only one that isn't a future "Movie of the Week" is The Little Princess. I'd been avoiding Shirley Temple movies since I subjected myself to The Little Colonel. I don't think The Little Princess was quite as bad as The Little Colonel, although I did fast-forward through the "ballet" and found myself sympathizing with nasty headmistress Miss Minchin. Excepting The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, I'm refusing to watch any more Shirley Temple movies. Sorry folks, there's an end to it.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Life This Week: February 27, 1939
Publicity photo and still from Doctor Macro
There are a lot of sub-par Westerns. Thankfully, Stagecoach (the "Movie of the Week") isn't one of them. I've now seen it three times and I've enjoyed myself during each viewing. The ensemble cast works well together, the threat of an Indian attack maintains a high level of suspense and then there's the happy ending I wanted. Even if you're not a fan of the Western, give this one a try.
To go with the movie, I made a February menu from Modern Meal Maker (1935). I can just imagine having this for dinner before going to a movie palace for a showing of Stagecoach. It must have seemed like quite an event! I wonder where it played in Wichita. The Orpheum? The Colonial? The Star? The Wichita? The Kansas? How exciting to have so many different theaters!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Life This Week: February 20, 1939
Publicity photo from Classic Hollywood Biographies
This week's Movie of the Week is Made For Each Other, starring James Stewart and Carole Lombard. Seems like it should be a comedy, right? Well, there are funny moments, but Made For Each Other is a serious movie. I found it a bit weepy and melodramatic but enjoyable. Favorite philosophical quote: "Never let the seeds stop you from enjoying the watermelon." If you also happen to be a cash-strapped young married like Steward and Lombard in this film, you may appreciate the fact that it's free from Internet Archive.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Life This Week: February 13, 1939
Well, well, what to say about this week's Movie of the Week? Idiot's Delight has to be one of the oddest films I've seen in a while. First off, look up "Clark Gable Puttin' on the Ritz" and watch the video. Yeah, that's right: Clark Gable plays a song-and-dace man. Life writes, "Gable took [dance] lessons for six weeks, soaking his size 11-C feet in salt water twice daily. He still dances atrociously." Except for the dancing and singing (thankfully there's not much of either), Clark Gable fits the role of a woman-chasing, war-veteran vaudevillian quite well and Norma Shearer does a great job as an acrobat/phony Russian noble. The movie is a romantic comedy superimposed on a war movie. The characters get stuck at a resort when the borders are closed after the start of a world war. Keep in mind, World War II didn't begin until September 1939. Thankfully, Idiot's Delight is entertaining because it would otherwise just be an oddity. Watch it and see for yourself. Let me know what you think!
Images from Doctor Macro
Monday, February 6, 2012
Life This Week: February 6, 1939 (and Feasts and Festivals: Washington's Birthday)
Today's issue of Life will get you ready for your Washington's Birthday celebrations. Does anyone still celebrate Washington's Birthday? It seems the only people who even get the day off anymore are postal workers. In case you're wondering, the observance of George Washington's birthday always falls on the third Monday in February (the 20th this year). People used to have parties and send each other adorable postcards.* In 1939, George Washington even became a style setter:
So, do your hair like George Washington and bake like Martha Washington--
Monday, January 30, 2012
Life This Week: January 30, 1939
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! It's Monday, so it's time for "Life This Week." The Movie of the Week is Jesse James, starring Tyrone Power as Jesse and Henry Fonda as his brother Frank. Nancy Kelly plays Zerelda Cobb, later Jesse's wife, and Randolph Scott is the a marshall assigned the duty of bringing the James brothers to justice. In the beginning, the brothers are out to make trouble for the railroad that has forced Missouri farmers off their land. Officers of the railroad have even killed Jesse and Frank's mother. Unfortunately, Jesse gets obsessed with outlawry and his escapades become more and more dangerous and less and less rooted in justice. However, it's Tyrone Power and we forgive him. Plus, much of the movie was filmed on location in the Missouri Ozarks, which look great in Technicolor. It's definitely worth the watch.
Poster from Doctor Macro
In the first part of the film when Jesse and Frank James are hiding out, Jesse shows up at Zerelda's house under cover of darkness (and in a rainstorm). Like any good 19th-century Missouri girl, she offers him a biscuit and a cup of coffee (served in transferware, no less). Here are my light, tall, fluffy baking powder biscuits. The recipe is from the revised Rumford Complete Cookbook from 1939, just like the movie!Monday, January 23, 2012
Life This Week: January 23, 1939
The cover story this week is a write-up on Bette Davis. I thought I'd watch one of her films I hadn't seen before--The Sisters (1938) co-starring Errol Flynn. They meet at an election-night ball and instantly fall in love. Frank (Errol Flynn) is a sports journalist and aspiring writer; Louise (Bette Davis) is the proper daughter of a small-town pharmacist. They elope to San Francisco and try to make a life for themselves. Too bad Franks's drinking and temper get him fired. Louise tries to keep her household afloat but only manages to drive Frank away. Suddenly--it's the San Francisco Earthquake of 1904. Will Frank and Louise rebuild their marriage while San Francisco crumbles around them?
Images from Doctor Macro
Monday, January 16, 2012
Life This Week: January 16, 1939
The Movie of the Week this week is Gunga Din, which is pretty darn entertaining. Paul even liked it. I don't even want to go into the pitfalls or politically incorrect nature of colonialism or orientalism or any of that. Just accept this for what it is and enjoy it. Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., are charming, Joan Fontaine is beautiful and the Thugee villains are suitably evil. The plot and setting of the final part of the film will probably seem familiar because Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is totally a rip-off of Gunga Din. We liked Gunga Din better, though. Keep this one in mind for family movie nights.
Images from Doctor Macro
Monday, January 9, 2012
Life This Week: January 9, 1939
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