Man With A Movie List

Director: Howard Hawks Year: 1946 While  The Maltese Falcon cares deeply about its plot, which ends up pretty simple if very well-paced, The Big Sleep  revels in its complexity, is extremely difficult to follow, even if it ultimately cares much more about its characters than most "puzzle films". This film clearly had a big influence on  Inherent Vice. I'm not sure I love it - my wife got so confused she couldn't keep watching - but I think there's certainly a lot more to it than most of the noirs we've seen so far. Bacall is excellent, and Bogart is just perfect. I would certainly watch it again to see how it holds up now that I have a better idea of what's going on.

Director: Howard Hawks Year: 1938 Run-time: 1 hr 42 min - Bringing Up Baby  is in my mind the epitome of the screwball comedy, and probably its finest example.  Hepburn and Grant are just so perfect in their roles, and the level of constant absurdity gets to the point where it overrides any cultural datedness and just becomes fun.  (The main exception is the Irish stereotype, but given that he is justified in how he behaves, it's excusable.)  I was a bit shocked to discover that this was not a commercial success, and indeed almost ruined Hepburn's career (she had the most to lose, given how novel her quirky performance is). - Looking back at the three screwballs so far on this list, it never occurred to me before how the genre seems to rely on a rich and "privileged" female lead to be the one to challenge and emasculate the male lead.  Perhaps that was the acceptable way to present it to a depression-era audience?