Matt vs. the Academy

Milestone time! The following review represents the 200th film I have screened for this project. It's sobering to think the 100th film ( Pulp Fiction ) was reviewed just a touch over one year after the project's commencement, yet the subsequent 100 films took over three times as long to get through. But who's quibbling? And now we close off 1934's record-setting 12-way Best Picture race with... The House of Rothschild Director : Alfred L. Werker Screenplay : Nunnally Johnson (based on the play by George Hembert Westley) Starring : George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Robert Young, C. Aubrey Smith Academy Awards : 1 nomination 0 wins As an old Jewish money changer in 18th century Prussia, Mayer Rothschild (Arliss) is forced to deal with many injustices from the government. After being gouged by the tax collector, his dying request to his five sons is to head up a bank in each of the major cities across Europe. Thirty years later, Nathan (also A...

Every now and then during this project, particularly while reviewing years prior to 1940, there is a movie that proves a tad elusive to get my hands on. I've visited the UCLA Film Archive twice (once for this current year of review, as it happens) to view three separate films and have had to find some "creative" ways (*cough* YouTube *cough*) to view others. When I began the current year of review (five months ago, shamefully), this next film had been given no home video release. It was also nowhere to be seen via my usual illicit channels, so I simply threw caution to the wind and hoped that TCM would schedule it soon. As luck would have it, they have indeed scheduled it ... for July. As more luck would have it, the Warner Archive Collection added the film to its list of distributed titles just a couple of months ago, making it available to order . Serendipitous, indeed. Considering I only have two films left in this current year of review, it seemed silly to wait an...

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm now officially a published author. Well, an e-published author. A handful of reviews from Matt vs. the Academy have made their way into the Take2 Guide to Steven Spielberg . And now, the good people at Take2 Publishing are offering a discount to Matt vs. the Academy readers. So, if you want to read what dozens of bloggers and reviewers have to say about Spielberg movies, you can now get 20% off the regular price by  visiting this link and applying the discount code mva2020 during checkout. Enjoy! Let's take a look now at another contender for 1934's Best Picture prize... The Gay Divorcee Director : Mark Sandrich Screenplay : George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman (based on the Broadway musical "Gay Divorce" by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein) Starring : Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore Academy Awards : 5 nominations 1 win,...