92.

As I kid, I never really got on with films. Oh, I watched a few, don’t get me wrong. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was formative for all the obvious reasons. But they were long. I found it very difficult to sit still for 90 minutes, let alone for more than that. A half hour sitcom, brilliant. A film? Sounds a bit tiring.

And over the years, things calcified. I still watched the odd film. I even went to the cinema occasionally. But I was never a “film person”. I was too busy throwing myself into as many half hour sitcoms as I could find. That was my thing. I didn’t need anything else.

The problem: you can very easily end up starting to become a bit of a parody of yourself. At some point, I wasn’t that into film, simply because that’s what I’d told myself for years.

*   *   *

A year ago today, I started what can only be described as a journey. An overused word, but in this case annoyingly true. My good friend Darrell Maclaine had told me how much fun he’d been having watching films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and offered to guide me through to see if I’d enjoy it too. I accepted.

I quickly fell in love with it. More than that – and somewhat uncharacteristically – I actually kept a list of what I’ve watched in the past year.

So if you don’t know these films, and are tempted to ever throw yourself into a Golden Age watch, here’s what I did. You will no doubt find your own way through and diverge from this list almost immediately; MGM musicals were a lot of Darrell’s initial loves, and they turned out to be mine, too. But as a starting point, you can’t go too far wrong.

92 films. By far the most films I’ve ever watched in a year in my life. And by far the most fun I’ve ever had with cinema, too.

In fact, that fun makes me wary of writing much about these films here. I think the very worst thing I could do is turn my newfound love for these films into content for Dirty Feed. I’ve already risked ruining some of my favourite sitcoms through overwatching them in order to write articles for this site.⁴ Throwing a whole heap of Golden Age films into the grinder to spit out articles for this site would seem to be a bad idea. I want to keep something for myself.

That said, I don’t mind talking a little bit about the list above. The three That’s Entertainment! compilation films were carefully calculated by Darrell to be a starter pack: a taster of all the good stuff to come. I highly recommend just buying the Blu-ray release. You can’t really go too far wrong with all the best bits of MGM’s musicals collected together.

Musicals also turned out to be the thing which helped me get over my reticence to sit for 90 minutes in one place. Rather than sit through one 90 minute story, I could deal much easier when it was broken up by song and dance routines. This reaches its height with films like Ziegfeld Follies (1945), which is essentially a high-budget variety show. And once my bottom and mind were trained, I started being able to deal with longer stories without music, like the brilliant Stage Door.⁵

Then there was the big revelation to me: how these films gave women stories, and screen time, and a place to be brilliant. I’m not pretending Hollywood always treated women well, and I don’t need to repeat all of that here. But so many of the actual films come across as strikingly progressive in this area now. More progressive than a fair chunk of material made today.

Also, Vivacious Lady has the funniest catfight ever filmed.

*   *   *

I say I didn’t watch many films as a kid. That’s entirely true. But despite not watching many films, I did have my Dad’s copy of Leonard Maltin’s movie guide. The actual edition is long gone, chucked away in one of my less-advised tidying attempts. But I remember lying on the floor of my living room, reading the yellowing pages. I distinctly remember reading about Gold Diggers of 1933, and thinking it was about prospecting.

I read that book over and over. But I never went out and hunted down any of the films. Not back then. Much like so much film and television, I’d read about the material long before I’d actually watched it.

I’m so glad I got there now. As current television engages me less and less, it was a delight to have something new for my brain to grab hold of. Turns out: I needed film after all.

1. Rewatched 13th April 2023, on Blu-ray. ↩

2. Even I had watched this one before, but the film has an entirely different feeling when actually watched in context with other Golden Age films. ↩

3. The only film in this watch that I didn’t finish. ↩

4. Recently: The Young Ones. I nearly lost it. ↩

5. One of my absolute favourites of the whole list. I highly recommend it. ↩