Hannah and Her Movies: December 2023

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Paradise Island (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Ellen Bradford comes to the South Sea Island of Tonga to marry her fiancé and finds out that he is a drunk. She also finds out that she is the only white woman on the island and, as such, has three men taking a deep interest in her.

Directed by Bert Glennon. Starring Kenneth Harlan, Marceline Day, and Tom Santschi.

Paradise Island is a film from 1930 about a woman who travels to meet her fiance in an island of Tonga, only to find that he's not a good person and now she's got more than one alternative suitor interested in her. To be honest, I rephrased that description from IMDb, because this was an extremely dull movie that I forgot about almost instantly after watching. The romance aspect is totally uncompelling, as none of the suitors are likable in the least, and it absolutely traffics in the sort of racist stereotypes that were all too common in any 1930s film set in a quote-unquote "exotic" location. While I've seen quite a few gems on my trek through the year 1930, the year also has its fair share of duds, and this is one of those. Not worth checking out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Paradise Island < The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Paradise Island < Beauty and the Bestie

Paradise Island < Joseph: King of Dreams

Paradise Island < Hidalgo

Paradise Island > Rush Hour

Paradise Island > Friends With Money

Paradise Island > The Notebook

Paradise Island < A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Paradise Island < Chicken Little

Paradise Island < The Evil Dead (1981)

Paradise Island < Broken Flowers

Paradise Island > Coogan's Bluff

Final spot: #3620 out of 3830, or 5%.

Over the Garden Wall (2014)

IMDb plot summary: Two brothers find themselves lost in a mysterious land and try to find their way home.

Directed by Katie Krentz and Patrick McHale. Starring Elijah Wood, Collin Dean, and Melanie Lynskey.

Over the Garden Wall is a TV miniseries of short animated episodes following two lost boys trying to find their way back home and encountering a series of strange characters and situations along the way. It's been a stable of my husband's autumn rewatches for years, and so while I've seen pieces of it just from being in the same room, this was the first time I actually sat down and paid attention to it, and I'm so glad I did. It's such a delightful mix of charming and creepy, and Greg is one of the most immediately likable characters I've ever seen in animation. Each episode feels very thematically connected to the rest, without ever feeling like it's too repetitive. And, of course, the songs are a ton of fun, especially now that I get to hear them in their proper context. I finally get the hype around this one and am glad I finally made space to watch it for real.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Over the Garden Wall > The Blues Brothers

Over the Garden Wall > Dark Passage

Over the Garden Wall > The White Tiger

Over the Garden Wall < The Great Dictator

Over the Garden Wall > The Gods Must Be Crazy

Over the Garden Wall > Bicycle Thieves

Over the Garden Wall < 10 Cloverfield Lane

Over the Garden Wall < My Neighbor Totoro

Over the Garden Wall < The Apartment

Over the Garden Wall > Rashomon

Over the Garden Wall > Chaplin

Final spot: #290 out of 3829, or 92%.

Follow Thru (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Club champion Lora Moore loses a golf match to a woman from another golf club. Then Jerry Downs, a handsome golf pro, and his goofy friend Jack Martin show up. Lora takes him on as her golf teacher to work on her putt. She falls for him, but so do several other women. Meanwhile, Lora's friend Angie Howard chases after Jack. A lot of silliness ensues.

Directed by Lloyd Corrigan and Laurence Schwab. Starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Nancy Carroll, and Zelma O'Neal.

Follow Thru is a 1930 romantic comedy about a talented female golfer pretending she doesn't know anything about it so the famous golfer she's in love with will teach her. It's an early color musical and is a surprising look at female athletes in the 30s. While the individual pieces of this don't necessarily stand out as anything special, the concept of the story is a lot more interesting than most of the 1930 romances I've been watching. My biggest beef with this movie, though, is the almost unwatchably irritating subplot where Jack Haley is unable to talk to women. I found it, as the kiddos say or have said, so "cringe" that I did actually wince a few times when the character reappeared on screen. So overall, while I wanted to appreciate what this film was bringing, there weren't enough positives and at least one enormous negative that pulled it down.

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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Paradise Island (1930)

Over the Garden Wall (2014)

Follow Thru (1930)