BEST FILMS OF 1938
by Mike Lorefice

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Michael Curtiz

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Alexander Nevsky
Sergei Eisenstein

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Angels With Dirty Faces
Michael Curtiz

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La Bete Humaine
Jean Renoir

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Jezebel
William Wyler

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The Lady Vanishes
Alfred Hitchcock

***1/2

Room Service
William A. Seiter

Groucho & co. hold up at a hotel while he tries to secure the financing for a play. You never see most of the supposedly large cast that's there rehersing or any of the play, but the Brothers use every trick in the book to freeload in the hotel, battling the stodgy manager. Most people consider this one of the lesser Marx movies because it wasn't written for them, but the fact that their remaining in the hotel is the plot frees them to just be funny, so in my opinion they are actually less constrained. It is even more of a play than most of the early talkies (though even though the director is still nowhere to be found at least they aren't forced to simply stand next to the mic like in the stagnant Animal Crackers), adopted from a Broadway hit, but if they have to talk Groucho is about as entertaining as anyone in Hollywood. I feel he actually gets more of a chance to show his brilliance here than in say Horse Feathers where he did little beyond obsess over the bimbo, even if his dialogue is even more sanitized. That said, it's not a good thing that Room Service is mostly Groucho since by far the highlight had always been the silent comedy of Harpo. One thing that makes this better than their more popular works to me is the lack of musical numbers, There's almost no director to be found, but they aren't killing time every ten minutes with pointless musical numbers, which never did anything beyond kill time; for once there's enough material to keep things interesting (even if never outstanding) throughout. [9/12/05] ***

A Woman's Face
Gustaf Molander

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