Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1936: THE PLAINSMAN & THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN

Apr 30, 2021

In this Studios Year by Year episode, 1936 begins with Paramount, and we take a look at two movies about gun-running that star Gary Cooper, but have little else in common (despite using the same cinematographer). We don't find much to love about Cecil B. DeMille's tribute to Wild West mythology, The Plainsman, starring Gary Cooper as an insufficiently hirsute Wild Bill Hickock and Jean Arthur as a whip-happy Calamity Jane; but Dave waxes enthusiastic about Lewis Milestone's The General Died at Dawn, an off-kilter Popular Front movie that's half-Hitchcock espionage romance, half-poetic realist manifesto. You know it’s wonderful, and we know you’re wonderful too.

Time Codes: 

0h 01m 00s:                  THE PLAINSMAN (dir. Cecil DeMille)

0h 40m 23s:                 THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN (dir. Lewis Milestone)

           

Review paragraphs from – The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames

                                   

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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

*Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Find Elise’s latest film piece on Billy Wilder and 1930s Romantic Comedy

*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

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