I can't believe this was made in 1929! It would seem much later. 'Dynamite' was directed by Cecil B. DeMillle and featured Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Julia Faye, and Joel McCrea.. Apparently it was DeMille's first talking picture!
I got lucky because they broadcast this on TCM the same week the classic movie channel premiered their recent biography 'Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (2004)', another TCM film worth watching. It is devoid of the usual colossal cast and the behemoth type epic drama associated with most DeMille movies but am I ever glad I stayed up late for this one...the sets and costuming were pure eye candy! And while it is more simplistic than movies we think of as DeMille classics there are some remarkable scenes in this film including a glass walled bathtub with bath salts as big as the coal chunks mined out of the heroines'temporary' husband's work place. I'll not quickly forget the women's 'aero wheels' event during the sporting day at the country club. Could this have even been the inspiration to the wacky Busby Berkeley extravaganzas that didn't appear for at least another four years after 'Dynamite'? The costumes in this movie are museum worthy. There's also tremendous amount of Deco decor which is discriminating and sublime as a period piece.
The plot premise is rather sappy...spoiled rich kid falls for poor coal miner who teaches her a lesson in reality...where haven't we all heard that story before... but it's easy to forgive some minor flaws with this picture because visually it's too damn delicious to forget. The acting was decent and at times even humorous, especially amongst the love triangle. This relationship was obliging liberated given the era. And oh...the parties!
I also appreciate the lushness of a truly dynamic black and white movie from someone who understood how color translates when it desaturates. If I saw this movie when it premiered I would have marked it an 8 1/2 on a scale of 10.
I got lucky because they broadcast this on TCM the same week the classic movie channel premiered their recent biography 'Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (2004)', another TCM film worth watching. It is devoid of the usual colossal cast and the behemoth type epic drama associated with most DeMille movies but am I ever glad I stayed up late for this one...the sets and costuming were pure eye candy! And while it is more simplistic than movies we think of as DeMille classics there are some remarkable scenes in this film including a glass walled bathtub with bath salts as big as the coal chunks mined out of the heroines'temporary' husband's work place. I'll not quickly forget the women's 'aero wheels' event during the sporting day at the country club. Could this have even been the inspiration to the wacky Busby Berkeley extravaganzas that didn't appear for at least another four years after 'Dynamite'? The costumes in this movie are museum worthy. There's also tremendous amount of Deco decor which is discriminating and sublime as a period piece.
The plot premise is rather sappy...spoiled rich kid falls for poor coal miner who teaches her a lesson in reality...where haven't we all heard that story before... but it's easy to forgive some minor flaws with this picture because visually it's too damn delicious to forget. The acting was decent and at times even humorous, especially amongst the love triangle. This relationship was obliging liberated given the era. And oh...the parties!
I also appreciate the lushness of a truly dynamic black and white movie from someone who understood how color translates when it desaturates. If I saw this movie when it premiered I would have marked it an 8 1/2 on a scale of 10.