Tag: King Vidor

Bird of Paradise (1932)

Bird of Paradise (1932). 80 minutes. Directed by King Vidor. Starring Dolores Del Río (as Luana), Joel McCrea (as Johnny Baker), John Halliday (as Mac), Richard “Skeets” Gallagher (as Chester), Bert Roach (as Hector), Lon Chaney Jr. (as Thornton), Wade Boteler (as Skipper Johnson), Napoleon Pukui (as the King), Agostino Borgato (as medicine man), and Sofia Ortega (as native woman).

Bird of Paradise is a pre-Code tropical romance that buzzes with as much sex on the beach as a cocktail bar on ladies’ night. The movie follows the story of Johnny, an American yachtsman who disembarks for a month on an island in the Pacific so that he can pant and drool over Luana, a young native woman who can barely speak English. Bird of Paradise holds together by virtue of its layers of fantasy, both sexual fantasy and the fantasy of “going native,” the latter of which Johnny attempts to realize on the island with only minor success. It

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The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Wizard of Oz (1939). 101 minutes. Directed by Victor Fleming, King Vidor, and George Cukor. Starring Judy Garland (as Dorothy Gale), Frank Morgan (as Professor Marvel/the Wizard), Ray Bolger (as Hunk/Scarecrow), Jack Haley (as Hickory/Tin Man), Bert Lahr (as Zeke/Cowardly Lion), Billie Burke (as Glinda the Good Witch of the North), Margaret Hamilton (as Miss Almira Gulch/the Wicked Witch of the West), Clara Blandick (as Aunt Em), and Charley Grapewin (as Uncle Henry). Songs by Edgar “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen. Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum.

The Wizard of Oz has to be one of the most phenomenal movies ever made: one of the most quotable, one of the most thematically resonant, and one of the most visually memorable (virtually any scene from any part of the movie can be excerpted in still form and people will instantly recognize it). It was not a major success upon its initial release and only achieved its present status … Read the rest