The Broadway Melody/ All Quiet on the Western Front

Bessie Love and Anita Page star in the 1929 Academy Award Best Picture winner The Broadway Melody. This is about two sisters Hank and Queenie who want to make it into show biz. When they are offered a chance at an audition it does not go well, and the man running the show only wants Queenie. Queenie tells them that she will not work with out her sister there, so Hank is offered a job as well. As the show advances it is made clear to Queenie that if she does not "play the game" her sister will be out. Hank cannot understand why Queenie is hanging out with the stage people, and tries to force her into better choices.

I did think that the best characters in the movie was the unnamed wardrobe maker, and a drunk that they kept calling Unconscious.

The movie was very sweet, funny, and the costumes were amazing. The movie shows how innocent the time was, the sisters show affection to each other in ways that today would be not sisterly. Yes, it was in black and white but I think that made it more real to the time.

All Quiet on the Western Front won the Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1930. This movie amazed me for the fact that it won. The story follows German WWI solders from home to the front, back home, and ultimately to death. This movie was not about the characters, it was about the harsh conditions of the military, and the physiological affect that war has on the men. It is about pain, hunger, fear, death and the despair that follows the 19 year old who is the one being followed.

This movie was an anti war movie at a time when in nine years the world would again be at war. I know that there are talks of remaking this movie. The talk is that Daniel Radcliffe will be in it and that it will still be a WWI movie.

The book All Quiet on the Western Front and its follow up both written by Erich Marai Remarque were banned in Nazi Germany.

Our next two movies will be 1931 Cimarron staring Irene Dunne and Richard Dix, then 1932 The Grand Hotel staring, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John and Lionel Barrymore.

My New Ride

I got it off of Cragsl!st for $25. It needs a tune up, new seat and new hand grips to start. When I get the money I am going to have it repainted. The picture does not show the color very well, but it looks like someone dropped it in Pept0 B!smo. It is that pink.

I know that the new grips are going to have streamers on them, I will be attaching a basket and getting a bell or horn as well. Yes, the front tire is a white wall. I am just not sure what color I want to go with. There are several in the liking orange, yellow, bright green, and I am sure that there are a few others.

I am reading again, I have missed it. For some reason I have not wanted to pick up a book. Oh I have gone thought the motions but have not enjoyed a book in quite a while. That changed on Saturday night. I read in 3 hours a book called Where Angels Fear to Tread, by Thomas E. Sniegoski. It was a light fun read, and now I want to get back into books.

Wings

The first movie that we should be watching on the Best Picture list is WINGS with Clara Bow. It looks like it would have been a good movie. However, it is not out on DVD so when it is released if it is released I will watch it.

Reading the link the plot of the movie seems to sound familiar like it has been done and re-done.

We still have not picked the date to watch the first two movies but it is hard trying to get schedules lined up for the first run.

My kittens are fun. I love watching them play and run about the house. I just wish that their claws were not so sharp. They will learn I hope.

I made my first ever gumbo. I made chicken as it has to last me most of the week, I like the way it turned out. Even up here in the NW I managed to find a spice shop that had File Powder. I did want to try to make it close to the recipe that I found. It is spicy, and filling and oh so yummy. The one thing I think I did wrong is my rice. I used sticky rice, but I do like it so I think that is what matters.

A New Year

I have just been lazy in my writing, and in my reading. To be honest on my days off I have not wanted to do much of anything. I have been going to the gym, but instead of losing weight I have been gaining. I think this is because I do not eat enough, but I do not know how to eat what I need to. I am not going to turn this into a weight loss blog. I know that many people do and find it helpful, I just don't think that will work for me. I have, however come up with a plan to get me writing again.

Some of my friends and I are going to have a movie night once a month. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, two years. We are going to watch in order ALMOST every movie that has won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, I say almost because the first movie is not yet out on DVD.

WINGS won in 1928 and it stars Clara Bow. The movie is about WWI and would be an interesting one to see. When it becomes available it will be watched even out of order. The other movie that I will not be watching is one that is one that gets shown on TV a lot and when I was a kid every time it came on my mother made us watch it. I still get tension headaches thinking about that movie, so for that year a runner up will be chosen to watch in its place.

There are some movies that I never heard of, and some that I have never wanted to see but as they are on the list they will be watched. One of the girls want to watch more than one movie a night and this does make some sense as there are more than 80 movies on the list.

If we do that the first two that we are going to see is the 1929 THE BROADWAY MELODY staring Charles King, Anita Page, and Bessie Love. The second one is the 1930 ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT staring Lew Ayers and Louis Wolheim.

I do think that this will be fun.