A Woman's Face

 

This is one of Joan Crawford's best movies and it's a stellar performance. She plays a scarred woman. Once she gets plastic surgery she is hired to kill an innocent child but is she as hard as people think she is? The movie takes place in a courtroom. Melvyn Douglas plays the man who says she has no soul but really is in love with her. There's a reason why Joan Crawford still has a following today. Maybe she wasn't all that great of a person but she was a dynamic actress.

Drunken Angel

 

Apparently, this was the first movie Kurosawa did that he was proud of. It's an excellent film about a relationship between a gangster and his doctor. The patient has tuberculosis but it's his brutal nature that brings about his downfall more than his health. Toshiro Mifune and Kurosawa made around a billion movies together. They still remain one of the best pairings in the history of cinema. 

Strike up the Band

 

This was a mediocre Judy Garland movie with Mickey Rooney. It's about some teenagers who want to enter an orchestra competition. Busby Berkeley, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney have all done better work. Judy Garland definitely had appeal and could sing well but MGM didn't always put her in the best movies. Pass.

No Regrets for our Youth

 

I love the actress Setsuko Hara. I loved her in Ozu's later movies where she always played a spinster. I didn't know that she worked with even more Japanese directors like Akira Kurosawa. She is at her prettiest in this movie. In No Regrets for our Youth, she plays a daughter whose father is fired for his political beliefs. She falls for a man as well who has been imprisoned for his beliefs and dies a tragic death. If this isn't enough the woman goes to live with her lover's parents. They are going through the nightmare of having their crops destroyed by local people and being called spies. Setsuko remains brave through all these experiences. I liked Hara's performance but I think that she became an even better actress later on. She was more subtle later. Kurosawa made better movies but this was all right. 

Tokyo Chorus

 

Yasujiro Ozu made a ton of silent movies and I'm glad that the Eclipse collection decided on releasing three of them. This was a pretty good movie although it would have been better with a score. This focuses on a father who loses his job and the effect it has on his children and on his wife. The wife is embarrassed by his effort with a job beneath him. The boy throws a tantrum when he realizes he won't get a bike. This isn't a completely depressing movie. It does have a hopeful outlook. I wish that more of Ozu's early movies were available. 

Captains Courageous

 

Freddie Bartholomew is a spoiled brat but a lot of that has to do with the fact that his father is neglecting him. He accidentally falls off a ship and gets rescued. The crew doesn't like him but Spencer Tracy takes him. He teaches the boy responsibility and how to be a man. He also provides something important a good male role model. I liked this movie. I don't like Spencer Tracy but he did a good job with this one. I need to read the Kipling novel.

Harakiri

 

This was a pretty cool Japanese movie about the Japanese ritual suicide harakiri. It's about a hungry man who resorts to harakiri to get some charity. But then his father-in-law comes afterward to get some revenge and he is not a weak man to be messed with. It definitely deserves the Criterion treatment.