This isn't another edition of The Land Before CGI but it could be. Instead it's another series I've built up video for and would like to share. Favorite opening credits sequences have been discussed on movie blogs for as long as I can remember so this is nothing new but now with software that makes it so easy to grab the credits and post them I figured, "Why not?" I'll start it off with My Man Godfrey.
Like I said, it could be another edition to The Land Before CGI because it employs miniatures for its opening credits and finishes on a photograph of the first frame of the movie proper that it can dissolve into to get the story rolling. It's a great title sequence. Enjoy.
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BTW, I plan on doing some reviews of new movies next week including a couple of independent releases so I'll hope you'll check in often.
14 comments:
The movie's pretty good, too!
This is, indeed, a clever opening-credit sequence, juxtaposing the glamour and bright lights of Broadway with a depressed Hooverville.
I miss hobo villages. All we have now are homeless camps. No hattered bowler hats, no fingerless gloves, no cigar butts on toothpicks. It's sad, really.
Ryan, eh, it's okay. Nah, of course I'm kidding, I love it.
And Marilyn it is a great opening in so many ways and that's one of them. The opening scenes of them gathered around the fire really show the filth and misery of homeless life better than most movies of the time, including Sullivan's Travels a few years later.
Arbo, imagine a "lost man" scavenger hunt today in which the wealthy descend a homeless shelter and offer five bucks to anyone who'll go with them?
They already do that, Greg. It's called hiring day workers.
Around here day workers gather in parking lots by the hundreds in the hopes of some manual labor to keep the family going. I'm well aware of that. I'm talking about people in evening attire, perhaps even furs, walking into a homeless shelter. Now that would be an interesting sight to see.
I love the credits too, both for their artistic neauty and for how they encapsulate the film.
At my blog, "Carole & Co.", I recently asked what Lombard movies could best be set in the current day. I said "Godfrey" wouldn't make the cut because it was so intrinsically tied to the Depression.
http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/262132.html
I saw Virtue with Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien at the AFI and it would be a great candidate for an update. Romance, light comedy, heavy drama, gangsters, cold-blooded murder, prostitution - something for everyone.
one of the greatest title sequences of all time.Its a movie in itself..I still say Godfrey should a married Cordelia..Carols a psycho!:o)..and remember..."All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people"
I still say Godfrey should a married Cordelia..Carols a psycho!
Damn straight! I love Gail Patrick. Her character is much more appealing to me than Carol, not detracting at all from how great Lombard is.
What a great title sequence. It truly evokes the era and sets the tone for the ensuing film.
As for "people in evening attire, perhaps even furs, walking into a homeless shelter" I think it would be more like rich folks in haute couture carrying their lap dogs in Louis Vuitton bags walking into a Wal-Mart (where most of us common folk shop), since evening attire went out about 30 years ago, and most rich people don't wear fur since they are PETA members who never miss out on a delicious cut of veal.
Yep, that pretty much defines rich phonies. They were so much more fun to watch back in the thirties in the movies because they always made sure the patriarch was someone like Eugene Pallette of whom it could be assumed made his money through hard work and had just as much disdain for the idle rich as the next guy.
really,being psycho is a large part of the Lombard appeal for me and for all.Not too many lovely glam queens will go all the way like that..
She was great at going out there, but she was also quite good dramatically in the early dramas I saw her in last year at the AFI. A lot more versatile than people realize.
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