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11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 0 replies · +5 points

"James Cagney Really, Really Sounds Like That (And It's Amazing): A Memoir"

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 0 replies · +4 points

I will watch it and report back in next week's Open Thread, THIS I DECREE!

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Oh shit, I had never heard of him but he sounds perfect. Thank you for the recommendation!

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 0 replies · +3 points

Oh, to be in Palo Alto!

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 4 replies · +11 points

I haven't seen the '35 Midsummer Night's Dream and (gasp) didn't even know he was in it, SITUATION TO BE REMEDIED ASAP

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 0 replies · +3 points

Also amazing in the 1920s/1930s music video vein:
Ethel Waters singing Birmingham Bertha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I1RUM3L_Tc
Josephine Baker dancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwC97rbe7_E (ok this is from a silent film BUT STILL)

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 1 reply · +3 points

Still not shutting up, Fredi Washington also starred in these AMAZING musical short films (sort of like proto-music-videos) with Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPFBMPs5nqE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-kJqM7he9o
Both films unfortunately include characters that are basically stereotyped, racist tropes, but the films as a whole are an amazing document of African-American music in the 30s.

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 4 replies · +34 points

JUST GONNA KEEP REPLYING TO MYSELF IN A PATHETIC PERFORMANCE OF MY LOVE OF PRE-CODES WHICH YOU SHOULD FEEL FREE TO SCROLL ON BY BUT HOW MUCH DO WE LOVE OBSOLETE 1930S SLANG

SOME FAVOURITES INCLUDE:
- calling all women sister (BONUS IF SHE'S YOUR EMPLOYEE)
- "you're all washed up!"
- being "on the level"
- calling someone's profession their "line"
- increasingly aggressive use of "yeah?"
- beginning sentences with "SAY,"
- there are so many more and they all make me happy

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 1 reply · +8 points

There's a Lee Tracy movie called Blessed Event in which Dick Powell makes one of his first movie appearance and plays (of course) a super smarmy tenor, and it's amazing because Lee Tracy is as annoyed by/fed up with Dick as you probably are, it's all Dick Powell showing up and singing something cheesy and Lee Tracy being like GOD NOT THIS HACK AGAIN

11 years ago @ The Toast - Pre-Code Movies Worth ... · 0 replies · +6 points

ALSO: Lee Tracy, the most shameless chiseler of all pre-code leading men. I love it when he's a newspaperman. I LOVE ALL 1930S NEWSPAPERMEN

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