Blog Archives
Movie Quote of the Day – The 39 Steps, 1935 (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Richard Hannay: There are million women in this island, and I’m chained to you. Listen, once more. I’m telling you the truth. I told you once in the train. I tried to tell you after the election meeting. I’m telling you now for the third time. There’s a danagerous conspiracy against this island and we’re the only ones who can stop it. Think what you’ve seen happen right under your very nose.
Pamela: The gallant knight to the rescue.
Richard Hannay: All right, then I’m just a plain, common murderer who stabbed an innocent, defenseless woman in the back not four days ago. How do you come out over that? I don’t know how innocent you may be but you’re a woman, you’re defenseless, and you’re alone on a desolate moor in the dark, manacled to a murderer who’d stop at nothing to get you off his hands. If that’s the situation you prefer, have it, my lovely, and welcome.
Pamela: I’m not afraid of. . .
Richard Hannay: For all you know, I may murder a woman a week.
Oscar Vault Monday – Top Hat, 1935 (dir. Martin Sandrich)
Featuring one of Hollywood’s most famous screen pairings – Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – Top Hat was the duo’s most financially successful film; it was the second highest grossing film of 1935. At once a musical, a dance film and a screwball comedy, the film is non-stop fun from start to finish. Top Hat was nominated for four Academy Awards, though it didn’t win any: Best Song – “Cheek To Cheek”, Best Art Direction, Best Dance Direction (a category that only existed from 1935-1937) and Best Picture. The other films nominated that year were Alice Adams, Broadway Melody of 1936, Captain Blood, David Copperfield, The Informer (which, with four wins, won the most awards that year), Les Misérables, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Naughty Marietta, Ruggles of Red Gap and winner Mutiny on the Bounty (nominated for seven awards, it is the last film to only win Best Picture and nothing else).